GST Council Finalises Central & State GST Laws But Hurdles Remain

The GST Council has finalised 197 clauses of the Central GST and State GST laws.

An employee scans a package for an order at a Big Basket warehouse on the outskirts of Mumbai November 4, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

In a significant breakthrough, the GST Council on Thursday finalised 197 clauses of the Central GST and State GST laws. In doing so, the Council has given final shape to these GST laws, a senior finance ministry official said on the condition of anonymity.

Another 3-4 clauses relating to definition of states with respect to territorial division and the issue of dual control or cross empowerment will be discussed later, the official said.

The Council will take up the draft compensation law, and the Integrated Goods and Services Tax law on the second day of this ongoing seventh round of meetings, he added.

We have cleared the Model GST Law, and all the procedural parts…it was discussed line by line…some contentious issues were kept on the side, primarily the issue of cross empowerment, and some issues of IGST. Tomorrow (Friday) what will come up for discussion is compensation. We will also spend some time on IGST, CGST and cross empowerment. 

Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu

In its sixth meeting on 11 December, the Council had taken up around 99 sections of the draft GST legislation for discussion, and the delay due to deadlock over the division of tax assessees did not permit the Centre to table these bills in the winter session of the Parliament.

After tomorrow, the next round of discussions will be held on 8 January, Drabu said.

(Read the original report here: BloombergQuint)