Countdown to GST: All States But Tamil Nadu On Board, Says Jaitley

Jaitley met finance ministers of 22 states and representatives from seven others in Kolkata to reach a consensus.

The GST bill will create a single national sales tax to replace several state and central levies. (Photo: The Quint/Lijumol Joseph)

India could be a step closer to one of the biggest tax reforms in the country since Independence.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that every state had either supported or accepted the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) except Tamil Nadu, which expressed its reservations and offered suggestions.

The GST bill will create a single national sales tax to replace several state and central levies. It has already been approved by the Lok Sabha, and is pending in the Rajya Sabha.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (Photo: Reuters)

Virtually every state has supported the idea of GST. One state, that is Tamil Nadu, said it has reservations... they have suggestions on how to make it implementable.

Arun Jaitley

Jaitley was talking to the media on the sidelines of a meeting of Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST in Kolkata.

They (Tamil Nadu) have offered a few suggestions, which have been noted in the committee meeting itself. So, effectively, every state either supported or accepted the idea of the GST.

Arun Jaitley

Twenty two state finance ministers are attending the meeting; seven states are represented by senior officials.

The government is attempting to pass the bill in the monsoon session.

Jaitley Didn’t Commit to April 2017 Deadline

“If we can pass it in the monsoon session (of Parliament beginning next month), then we can implement it in 1 April 2017,” Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on 13 June.

However, Jaitley did not firmly commit to a 1 April 2017 deadline for enforcing the GST.

Hopefully, that should be the intention. But then the schedule would be, first the constitutional amendment (to be approved by the parliament), it’s ratification by the states, the passage of the CGST and IGST by the parliament, and the passage of SGST by all the states.

Arun Jaitley

(With PTI inputs.)