The relevant Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Second Amendment) Bill, 2014, was passed by a division with 352 ayes, 37 against and 10 abstentions. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced the bill was approved with two-thirds majority of the House, as required.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not present at the House when the voting took place. The opposition had wanted to send the bill to a Select Committee, which was rejected by the government. The GST was originally mooted by Vajpayee government in 2000 and the UPA government did its best to take things forward.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has promised to compensate states for any revenue loss and assured that the new GST rate will be much less than 27% recommended by an expert panel. The GST, which is proposed to be implemented from April 1, 2016, will subsume excise, service tax, state VAT, entry tax, octroi and other state levies.