In a historical move, the Rajya Sabha passed the Goods & Services Tax (GST) bill to amend the Constitution, paving the way for what is popularly referred to as the concept of “one nation, one tax.” The members of all political parties voted for the bill including the Congress, however, the AIADMK staged a walkout.  

The constitutional amendment was passed in the Upper House with the two-thirds majority, as all parties, except the AIADMK, pledged support after Modi government's assurance that the tax rates would be kept "as low as possible".

The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved the amendments. The Bill will now be returned to the Lok Sabha for its approval.

The constitutional amendment will enable both the Centre and the States to simultaneously levy the GST, which will subsume all indirect taxes currently levied, including excise duties and service tax. It will be levied on consumption rather than production.

The GST will have two components keeping in mind the federal structure of India: the Central GST (CGST) and the State GST (SGST).

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said during the debate, that, "Just as the income tax rate can't be levied at the whim of the executive, and needs legislative approval, the same must also hold true for the goods and services tax rate (GST)."

"Today we may not put the rate in the Constitutional amendment bill but we will have to put it in the central bill," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his opening statement.

"Because of GST Bill, there is a permanent loss to state of Tamil Nadu and it will violates the basic structure of the constitution," A Navaneetha Krishnan of AIADMK said.

The Indian express reported, Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman of Microsoft India, supports the move and said that, “I am pleased that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha today. It is a positive development and I hope the Government will implement this long pending reform by April 1, 2017. The Government’s idea of a single tax regime is crucial to improve ease of doing business in India and address the ambiguities of the current indirect tax landscape, proving beneficial for the economy, at large.”

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Nandini