Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that all states except Tamil Nadu have virtually supported the GST Bill.
After the meeting of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, Jaitley said, “So far, every state has given its detailed views on the GST itself. Virtually, every state has supported the idea of GST. Except one state Tamil Nadu, they have made some suggestions which have been taken note of.
The meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers in Kolkata was aimed at bringing consensus on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill by all states.
Twenty-two states were represented at the meeting, which began in this morning, by their finance ministers. West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra chaired the closed-door meeting.
The Finance Minister also shot down the opposition Congress party’s demand to write a cap for the proposed goods and services tax (GST) into the constitution.
Jaitley said there was a consensus among Indian states against the Congress party’s stand.
The proposed tax reform, India’s biggest revenue shake-up since independence in 1947, seeks to replace a slew of federal and state levies, transforming the nation of 1.3 billion people into a customs union.
The Congress party, the original author of the tax reform, has said it would back the GST bill if the government agreed to cap the tax rate at 18 percent and create an independent mechanism to resolve disputes on revenue sharing between states.
The meeting in Kolkata follows West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration of support to the GST, which has come as a boost for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s efforts to get the bill passed in the Rajya Sabha in the monsoon session starting next month.
The bill for a pan-India GST to thoroughly overhaul India’s indirect tax regime, first mooted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance regime at the Centre, has been passed by the Lok Sabha but is stalled in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA lacks a majority.
The states will draft their own State GST (SGST) bill based on the draft model law with minor variations, incorporating state-specific exemptions.
The Centre and the states will also have to approve the integrated GST law or iGST, which will deal with the inter-state movement of goods.
Jaitley said, “There has been complete consensus on no constitutional cap as exigencies may arise in future to revise the rates”.
The Constitution amendment bill needs to be ratified by more than half of the states.
After the meeting of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, Jaitley said, “So far, every state has given its detailed views on the GST itself. Virtually, every state has supported the idea of GST. Except one state Tamil Nadu, they have made some suggestions which have been taken note of.
The meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers in Kolkata was aimed at bringing consensus on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill by all states.
Twenty-two states were represented at the meeting, which began in this morning, by their finance ministers. West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra chaired the closed-door meeting.
The Finance Minister also shot down the opposition Congress party’s demand to write a cap for the proposed goods and services tax (GST) into the constitution.
Jaitley said there was a consensus among Indian states against the Congress party’s stand.
The proposed tax reform, India’s biggest revenue shake-up since independence in 1947, seeks to replace a slew of federal and state levies, transforming the nation of 1.3 billion people into a customs union.
The Congress party, the original author of the tax reform, has said it would back the GST bill if the government agreed to cap the tax rate at 18 percent and create an independent mechanism to resolve disputes on revenue sharing between states.
The meeting in Kolkata follows West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration of support to the GST, which has come as a boost for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s efforts to get the bill passed in the Rajya Sabha in the monsoon session starting next month.
The bill for a pan-India GST to thoroughly overhaul India’s indirect tax regime, first mooted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance regime at the Centre, has been passed by the Lok Sabha but is stalled in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA lacks a majority.
The states will draft their own State GST (SGST) bill based on the draft model law with minor variations, incorporating state-specific exemptions.
The Centre and the states will also have to approve the integrated GST law or iGST, which will deal with the inter-state movement of goods.
Jaitley said, “There has been complete consensus on no constitutional cap as exigencies may arise in future to revise the rates”.
The Constitution amendment bill needs to be ratified by more than half of the states.