50% States Ratify GST Bill, GST Council Next On The Agenda: Arjun Ram Meghwal

The GST Council will be enabled after consultations with the state finance ministers, Meghwal said.

Twesh Mishra @tweshmishra

02 Sep 2016, 12:18 PM IST

(From L to R) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in conversation with Jayant Sinha, Santosh Gangwar and Arjun Ram Meghwal (Photographer: Nikunj Ohri/Bloomberg)

The Modi government moved closer to implementing the ‘one nation, one tax’ Goods and Services Tax (GST) on Thursday with the Odisha assembly ratifying the GST Constitutional Amendment. This makes it the 16th state in the union to ratify the GST Constitutional Amendment.

Minister of State for Finance, Arjun Ram Meghwal said in an interview with BloombergQuint that the next step is the formation of the GST Council. He said, “Now the GST Council will be enabled after consultations with the state Finance Ministers.”

Elaborating on the priorities for the GST Council, Meghwal said, “The council will decide on the standard rate of GST in the country. Area-based exemptions will also be decided by the council.”

The requisite number of states have ratified the #GST Constitution Amendment Bill and now it can go for Presidential assent.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) September 1, 2016

Glad to inform that we are ahead of our schedule for implementation of GST so far.Instead of 30 days kept for this it is achieved in 23 days
— Dr Hasmukh Adhia (@adhia03) September 1, 2016

With Odisha ratifying the Constitutional Amendment bill for GST, minimum requirement of 50% states ratifying the bill is complete.
— Dr Hasmukh Adhia (@adhia03) September 1, 2016

Under the norms specified in the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill, the government needs to form the GST council within 60 days from the day the President gives his assent.