GST Council moves forward on draft model law

Dated 23rd December, 2016

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has cleared most of the draft model law at a meeting held on December 22. The Council comprising Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and representatives from the states of India will once again discuss the issue of administrative control over assessees on the second day of the 2-day meeting to be held on December 23.

Apart from administrative control, the Council will also discuss Integrated GST (IGST) and compensation bills to agree on compensations that need to be paid to the states following the implementation of GST.

The Council cleared most of the 197 clauses proposed under Central GST (CGST) on the first day of the meeting chaired by Jaitley. The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers also met after the Council meeting concluded to provide their approval over the day’s proceedings, according to media reports.

As the Council could not come to a consensus on GST legislations like CGST, IGST and compensation law in the past meetings, the bill was not introduced in Parliament’s winter session. This could force the council to miss its GST roll out target of April 2017.

The Constitution was amended by Parliament for introducing GST and Constitutional requirements make it mandatory to roll out the bill by September 2017.