All Four GST Bills Passed In Lok Sabha

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed key legislations, putting Asia's third-largest economy on course to launch a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley aims to roll out the new sales tax from July 1 that will subsume a slew of central and state levies, transforming a nation of more than 1.2 billion population into a single market.

What Mr Jaitley calls the biggest tax reform since independence in 1947 is expected to boost economic growth by about 0.5 percentage points in its first year of implementation. (Also read: Goods to become cheaper with GST, says Arun Jaitley)

The four bills, passed by the Lok Sabha, would next be presented before the Rajya Sabha.

Proposed tax rates range from 5 to 28 per cent, with 12 per cent and 18 per cent being the standard rates.

It has not been decided yet which tax rates will apply to which categories of goods.