After a lot of talks with the opposition parties by the central government there seems to be a breakthrough in passing the GST bill. To bring the Congress on board the Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform, the government Wednesday cleared changes in the Constitutional Amendment Bill including doing away with the additional 1 per cent tax by producing states and compensating all states for any revenue loss in the first five years post the GST rollout. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is holding a series of talks today with opposition leaders from the Congress, the Left and other parties in order to reach a consensus on the crucial reform bill which seeks to replace a slew of central taxes in 29 states, thereby implementing a uniform tax regime.

The Centre had earlier planned to compensate the States for any revenue loss due to the GST that will replace the present indirect tax regime, in a phased manner 100 per cent compensation in the first three years, 75 per cent in the fourth year, and 50 per cent in the fifth year. According to sources said the Bill will be brought in the Rajya Sabha early next week with the leaders of Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Left parties meeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and expressing their approval.