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Minutes of the10th GST Council Meeting

The 10th GST Council meeting headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was held on 18th February, 2017 and the following issues were addressed:

  1. The goods and services tax (GST) council on Saturday gave its final nod to a bill that will guarantee compensation to the States in case of revenue losses arising from a transition to GST.
  2. The council did not give its final nod to the other three supporting legislations crucial for the implementation of this new indirect tax regime—the central GST (C-GST), the state GST (S-GST) and the integrated GST (I-GST) bills. These bills will now be taken up in the next meeting of the GST council on 4th -5th March in New Delhi.
  3. The endeavour of the government will be to table these supporting legislations in the second half of the budget session beginning 9 March.
  4. Clarifications are required on some of the provisions of the GST bill from the council. These issues include the constitution of the appeals tribunal under GST, the definition of agriculture, the exemptions that have to be given during the transition phase, delegation of powers under GST, treatment of the works contract and the fineprint of the composition scheme wherein taxpayers with a revenue threshold of up to Rs50 lakh can pay a fixed tax rate and reduce the procedural requirements.
  5. The GST compensation law, which guarantees to provide compensation to states for 5 years for any revenue losses under GST, will now be taken to the Union cabinet for its approval before it is tabled in Parliament.
  6. The passage of the C-GST, I-GST and compensation bills by Parliament in the second half of the budget session will be crucial for the rollout of GST from 1 July. The state legislative assemblies also have to pass the S-GST law.
  7. It was decided that once the bills are cleared by the council, the next stage will be to fit the items into the various tax slabs.
  8. The council had decided against giving powers to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) under the indirect tax act arguing that it already has powers to scrutinize the finances under the CAG act.

 

The next meeting of the GST council scheduled on 31st March, 2017 the following issues will be taken up:

  1. The three legislations crucial for the implementation of this new indirect tax regime—the central GST (C-GST), the state GST (S-GST) and the integrated GST (I-GST) bills will be taken up in the next meeting of the GST council on 4th -5th March in New Delhi.
  2. The issues present in the provisions of GST bill will be approved in the next meeting of the GST council on 4th -5th March in New Delhi.

 

Source: www.livemint.com