GST Council Meeting rescheduled on December 2-3

The Dollar Business Bureau

The GST council meeting scheduled to be held on November 25 has been postponed for a week after many states sought some changes to the policy draft prepared by the Central government.

The new meeting to finalise the legislation for the new tax regime will be held on December 2-3.

However, the Central and the States committee members will meet on November 25, as they together look to finalise the three key draft legislations for Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) and compensation law. 

“States desired some more time to internally deliberate on revised draft of the laws within their respective state(s),” the finance ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.  

According to officials, certain states have recommended a few changes to the procedure for returns in the model GST law and also in the wordings of the compensation law.

The CGST, IGST and State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) framework deal with return, registration, refund and jurisdiction of the process. Under the compensation law, the states will be recompensated for their loss in revenue during the initial five years, after the GST is rolled out.  

The Central government is confident of introducing the legislations during the ongoing winter Parliament session, ending on December 16. The GST Council members will decide the division of tax administration. 

The states want administrative rights over a turnover of up to Rs.1.5 crore from both goods and services providers. However, the centre is keen on covering a certain percentage of assessees while rest will be assessed by states. 

On November 16, the Central government had circulated the draft legislation among states, and on November 21-22, the central and state committee discussed the legislation and the changes suggested by states. The GST Council has already announced a four-slab GST tax structure — 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% — in addition to a cess on luxury and ‘sin’ goods such as tobacco.