Are We Close To A Resolution On GST? I Will Keep My Fingers Crossed, Says Jaitley
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hopes to meet April 1 GST launch deadline.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will take longer than expected to approve the three GST bills waiting to be tabled in the Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday. Jaitley was addressing a press conference after the conclusion of the fifth GST Council meet.
The GST Council discussed the draft Central and State GST Model laws over the last two days. The Centre and state governments have arrived at a partial consensus on nine chapters of these two bills. Talks will continue when the Council meets again on December 11-12.
The GST Council is the drafting and approving authority for all GST-related laws and the Council is discussing each clause in both the central GST and state GST bills to arrive at a consensus, Jaitley said.
The Council is also expected to take up the compensation agreement between the Centre and states and the Model Integrated GST law when it meets next. There have been some discussions on the issue of cross-empowerment or dual control (joint administration of assessees) and the Integrated GST (IGST) during the just concluded Council meet and suggestions have been received after long discussions, Jaitley added.
States are opposed to the dual control formula proposed by the Centre – a vertical split of assessees – and have proposed a horizontal split of assessees such that those with a turnover of below Rs 1.5 crore per annum are administered by the respective states and the rest by the Centre.
“We have had four meetings on this issue, and we are yet to arrive at a consensus”, Amit Mitra, finance minister of West Bengal said after the conclusion of the latest round of GST Council meetings.
“We also discussed the compensation issue. The Rs 50,000 crore was agreed upon before the government gave the country the demonetisation shock. Post November 8, states have lost revenue and Centre will also have to provide additional compensation amidst declining revenues due to economic slowdown for the Centre,” Mitra added.
E Rajendar, Telangana finance minister said that the discussions were around model GST laws. No decision was taken on the issue of cross-empowerment between the Centre and states.
Jaitley was hopeful that Centre and states are close to a resolution.
Are we close to a resolution? I will keep my fingers crossed.Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister
“We don’t have much option. Efforts are on for an April 1 GST launch. We have April 1 as the earliest date and September 15 as the last date to launch GST,” Jaitley stated while addressing a question related to delay in launching the indirect tax regime.
Jaitley also indicated that the last option would be to take a vote of the GST Council. “So far I have avoided a division. I would like to avoid a division as far as possible and arrive at a consensus via discussions,” Jaitley added.