Mysuru: With the Goods and Services Tax (GST) coming into effect from midnight today, it’s raining discounts at many of the showrooms across the city to clear the inventories.

Shopaholics were seen making a beeline to the shops at the main shopping areas to purchase clothes, shoes and electronic items. Some of the shops are offering 50 percent, upto 50 percent discounts for pre-GST sales.

One of the electronic shops in the city was found empty this morning. When asked, the Store Manager said majority of their items were sold as the company had offered great discounts on various electronic items and added that the fresh stock would arrive tomorrow after the GST came into effect.

The Devaraja Urs Road, which is normally busy, has got busier over the past week as almost all the shops are offering discounts. Similar is the case on Sayyaji Rao Road, Dhanvanthri Road, New Kantharaja Urs Road and other areas. Not only the shops, the e-Commerce website such as Flipkart, Amazon and others too have offered great discounts.

Many shop owners, who spoke to SOM, said that though they had incurred losses by offering discounts they were ready for the GST as it would help in country’s economic growth and bring a lot of funds for the development.

Meanwhile, Ramesh Gowda, a Chartered Accountant, said it was a great move to launch GST across the country. “Many taxes have been clubbed together under one single tax system. Though traders would find it tough to understand the GST things will be normal within 2-3 months. GST will also bring in a lot of transparency into the economy,” he added.

Special Parliament Session

The Union Government has called for a special session of Parliament today midnight to roll-out the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver a speech during the special session in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee.

Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Speaker Sumithra Mahajan and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda will be present.

According to sources, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, industrialist Ratan Tata, singer Lata Mangeshkar have also been invited for the event.

The session will begin at 11 pm today and end at 12.10 am tomorrow (July 1).

However, Congress and Trinamool Congress have decided to boycott the special session in protest against the launch of GST.

Previously, the joint session of the Parliament has been held on four occasions. The first one was held on the day India attained freedom on the midnight of Aug.14, 1947 when the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech. The second session was held in 1972 to mark the silver jubilee of Indian Independence. The third session took place in 1992 to mark the Golden Jubilee of Quit India Movement and fourth midnight session during 1997 to mark the Golden Jubilee of Independence.