Minutes of the 9th GST Council Meeting
In the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meetings, held on 11th January 2017 headed by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley the following issues were addressed:
- The possibility of implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by the Centre's targeted deadline of April 1, 2017, has receded with the ninth meeting of the GST Council here failing to agree on the contentious issue of state administrative control of GST.
- Eight earlier meetings of the Council have failed to resolve the deadlock between the Centre and the states on the issue of "cross empowerment", or dual control of assessees, and who will exercise control over them.
- The states want exclusive control on businesses with turnover below Rs 1.5 crore (the current threshold for central excise), including the service taxpayers.
- The consensus had almost been reached on the territorial control issue of levying Goods and Services Tax on the high seas. The Centre's proposal to tax transactions that take place within 12 nautical miles from coastal state borders has been opposed by several states, which stand to lose substantial revenue in this way.The Finance Minister sorted the issue by declaring that "On the territorial issue, the states will continue to tax as they have been doing".
No dates had been decided on the next meeting to sort out this contentious issue of deadlock, which is now likely to be held only after the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com