Kolkata: The Empowered Committee on Goods and
Services Tax (GST) has reportedly reached a broad consensus on the much-awaited
tax reforms at a meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday.
The committee will meet again in July
to discuss the revenue-neutral rate and decide the fine-print of dual-control
issues between the Centre and the States. According to Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley and West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, who is chairing the
committee, only Tamil Nadu raised concerns against the GST rollout plan.
While neither Jaitley nor Mitra
clarified the reasons behind the opposition, finance ministers of at least two
major industrial States said Tamil Nadu had concerns about revenue loss and
wanted a separate dispute-resolution body on GST.
Representing Tamil Nadu, Minister KC
Veeramani, who was the first to speak at the meeting, also submitted a
representation before the committee. Another finance minister from a major
State, however, didn’t find much merit in Tamil Nadu’s objection. “Concerns for
revenue loss are not exclusive to Tamil Nadu. Also, the GST council is created
for dispute resolution so there is little point in demanding another body,” he
said.
Calling the meeting as a “significant
move” towards implementation of GST, Jaitley said he was hopeful that the Bill
would be passed in the monsoon session. The Bill has already been cleared by
the Lok Sabha, as per EXIN Times.
“Virtually every State has supported
the GST, except one,” Jaitley said. According to him, “the Centre will give
constitutional guarantee to compensate States for revenue loss, if any, for a
five-year period,” up from the initial proposal for a three-year safety
blanket.
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