India, Sept. 24 -- A major reason for the delay in taking up the Constitutional Amendment Bill for enactment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was the reluctance of the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre to agree to the demand of the States. The latter wanted compensation of the loss of revenue that would arise with its launch vis-a-vis the revenue they would get under the subsisting dispensation of excise duty, sales tax or value-added tax plus a host of other local taxes. This hesitancy came although the concept was first introduced by then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Budget speech on February 28, 2006 with an ambitious launch target of April 1, 2010.

The Narendra Modi Government, by agreeing to...