Kolkata, June 14: Virtually all states have supported the idea of GST except Tamil Nadu which has “some reservations”, finance minister Arun Jaitley said Tuesday after a meeting of empowered committee of state FMs on the long awaited indirect tax reform.
He said however that there was “no deadline as such” for the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax which aims to subsume a string of state and central level levies. The government had earlier targeted to roll out the nationwide single tax regime from April 1, 2016 but the Constitutional Amendment Bill on GST has been stuck in the Rajya Sabha due to opposition by the Congress party.
“Virtually all the states have supported the idea of GST Tuesday barring Tamil Nadu which has expressed some reservations. TN has offered a few suggestions which have been noted by the committee,” Jaitley told media on the first day of the two-day meet. The meeting was attended by finance ministers of 22 states including West Bengal’s Amit Mitra as well as Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, deputy CM of Delhi and senior officials of seven others.
Stating that this was a record attendance of FMs, Jaitley said that every state has given detailed views on GST. Chairman of GSTN and revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia were also present.
Jaitley said the Lok Sabha had approved the GST Bill while it was pending before the Rajya Sabha. “The first thing which will have to be done is to pass the constitutional amendment which has to be then ratified by the states. Then Parliament will have to pass the CGST Bill and states the SGST Bills” he said.
Jaitley said the states’ fear of loss of revenue for the first five years had also been addressed. “The Centre will compensate the loss and there should not be any cause for worry,” he said. On the contentious issue of the constitutional cap on the GST rate, the finance minister said: “There is a complete consensus on that, there should not be any such ceiling as exigencies may arise in future. Now it is left to the GST council.”
On additional 1 per cent tax as demanded by the producing states, he said the Centre was flexible on the matter. As GST is a consumption-based tax, the producing states had been demanding this extra tax. Jaitley said: “We will try our best to bring the constitutional amendment in the monsoon session of Parliament. Then the CGST and SGST legislations will be put in place.”