Fifth meeting of GST Council has been rescheduled to Dec 2-3. States needs more time to finalise the model of GST and Compansation laws.
The GST Council, comprising the Union finance minister and his state counterparts, were originally scheduled to meet on 9-10, which was later postponed to November 25. Now it has been shifted to December 2-3.
The decision to postpone the GST Council meet of November 25 was taken after deliberation between officers of central and state governments on November 21-22 in which states suggested some changes in the three draft legislations.
“Number of issues were resolved during the two-day meeting. However, the states desired some more time to internally deliberate on revised draft of the Laws within their respective state(s),” a finance ministry statement said.
However, the officers’ committee of both the Centre and states will meet on November 25 to finalise the three draft legislations — CGST, IGST and compensation law– and thereafter place them before the GST Council on December 2-3. Centre had on November 16 circulated these legislation among the states.
“The states have suggested certain changes in the GST law and some wordings in compensation law,” a source said.
The three draft legislations would be put up in public domain for stakeholders’ comments after November 25.
The Centre and the states have been working overtime to introduce the CGST and IGST legislations and the compensation law in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament and sources say that these are going to come in as Money bills.
“These are taxation laws and as a norm such laws are introduced in Parliament as Money Bill,” a source said.
The officers committee would not discuss the issue of cross empowerment to avoid dual control as it would be decided at the ministerial meeting, the source added.
The Centre is on track to introduce the legislations in the ongoing Parliament session, which ends on December 16.
The Central GST (CGST) will be framed based on the model GST law. The IGST law would deal with inter-state movement of goods and services. The compensation law will list out how states will be compensated in the initial five years for revenue loss on account of GST rollout.
The Centre plans to create a Rs 50,000 crore fund for GST compensation by levying cess on demerit and luxury goods.
At its last meeting, the GST Council agreed on a four-slab structure – 5, 12, 18 and 28% – along with a cess on luxury and ‘sin’ goods such as tobacco.
Hindustan Times, 24th November 2016
