BHAVANI INFO BY HARSHADSINH BHADALIYA

Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax applicable throughout India which replaced multiple cascading taxes levied by the central and state governments. It was introduced as The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act 2017,[1] following the passage of Constitution 122nd Amendment Bill. The GST is governed by a GST Council and its Chairman is the Finance Minister of India. Under GST, goods and services are taxed at the following rates, 0%, 5%, 12% and 18%. There is a special rate of 0.25% on rough precious and semi-precious stones and 3% on gold.[2] In addition a cess of 15% or other rates on top of 28% GST applies on few items like aerated drinks, luxury cars and tobacco products.

Touted by the government to be India's biggest tax reform in 70 years of independence, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was finally launched on the midnight of 30 June 2017, though the process of forming the legislation took 17 years (since 2000 when it was first proposed). The launch was marked by a historic midnight (30 June - 1 July 2017) session of both the houses of parliament convened at the Central Hall of the Parliament, but which was immediately boycotted by the opposition by staging a walk out to show their disapproval of the same.

Members of the Congress boycotted the GST launch altogether. They were joined by members of the Trinamool Congress, Communist Parties of India and the DMK, who reportedly found virtually no difference between the existing taxation system, and therefore claimed that the government was trying to merely rebrand the current taxation system but made it worse for common people by increasing existing rates on common items and reducing rates on luxury items. Many critics pointed out that the GST would increase costs of daily goods and affect many Indians adversely, especially the middle, lower middle and poorer classes GST was initially proposed to replace a slew of indirect taxes with a unified tax and was therefore set to dramatically reshape the country's 2 trillion dollar economy. However, it has been met with sharp criticism from various fronts due to the increased costs and troubles that it will cause to common citizens. The rate of GST in India is between double to four times that levied in other countries like Singapore.

Since April 1, 2017, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Travancore and Indian Bank have been merged with SBI.SBI gives relief

-SBI has announced on Twitter that it will use 5 subsidiary banks and Indian women banks' old bank checks till December 31-After increasing the awareness, many customers have requested that it be required to register for a new check book before December 31.After December 31, the old check of any supporting bank or Indian woman bank is not considered valid- The new checkbook should be registered through internet banking, mobile banking or ATMIt can also be registered for taking a new checkbook on the branch and going to the branch.SBI's Customer Base

After the merger of these banks, the total subscriber base of SBI has crossed 37 million. The number of these branches will be increased to about 24,000 ATM. With that, their number will be 59,000. After the merger, the deposit base of SBI has increased to 26 lakh crore rupees.