The sixth meeting of the all-powerful Goods and Services Tax Council called by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to sort out contentious issue of dual control of assesses, remained inconclusive and has been re-scheduled on December 22 and 23, raising apprehension of missing the April 1 target of the final GST rollout.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the discussion on the Integrated GST (IGST) law is expected to happen in the next meeting of the Council along with that of deciding on the jurisdiction over assessees. He expressed hopes that in the next 2-Day GST Council meeting they would be able to clear draft legislation for Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) and compensation law after which these will be introduced in Parliament. Jaitley also noted that there are about 195 sections in the draft legislation, so it is the core bill of the legislation. He also said that they have discussed 99 sections and a few clauses need to be redrafted and would change that during the course of time. Kerala FM Thomas Isaac said demonetisation has eroded states trust. "April 1 deadline is out of picture, GST can be rolled out only by September".
The council’s two-day meeting commenced in the shadow of the November 8 demonetisation, whose fallout has put a serious question mark on implementing GST by the central government’s targeted deadline of April 1, next year. Last month, the GST Council agreed on a four-slab structure - 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent along with a cess on luxury and ‘sin’ goods such as tobacco. GST is a singular tax reform that will remove barriers across states and integrate the country into a common market.
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