Ready to table GST Bill: Jaitley

GST BILL IN CURRENT FORM IS NOT ACCEPTABLE: TAMIL NADU

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday that the government will take up the Constitution Amendment Bill on goods and services tax for consideration and passage in the Parliament within a few days.

This even as compensation and revenue loss to manufacturing states lacked consensus at a meeting held on Wednesday.

“In view of the near unanimous support of states, that it is going to be a winwin situation for all, we will go ahead with the Constitution Amendment in the current session of Parliament,” said Mr Jaitley after a meeting with state finance ministers.

Mr Jaitley said the Centre and states are trying maintain April 2016 as the target date for GST implementa- New Delhi, April 22: Expressing its opposition to the GST Constitution Amendment Bill, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday said the Centre’s proposal for resolving issues concerning new indirect tax regime through a GST Council was not acceptable to it.

“Current proposal of the government of India to introduce a Constitutional Amendment Bill on GST and then to evolve a consensus on various aspects of GST, especially the actual tax rates and tion. “We are quite optimistic about that target,” said the finance minister.

Empowered committee of state finance ministers, chairman K.M. Mani said tax bands, etc., through the GST Council is not acceptable to us. Broad consensus on the critical issues should be evolved through the Empowered Committee before the enactment of the Bill is taken up,” said M.C. Sampath, minister for commercial taxes and registration, Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu, he said, was opposed to the idea of according constitutional status to the GST Council as it would impact the autonomy of states in fiscal matters. — PTI there was broad consensus that the GST bill should be passed immediately so that it can be introduced.

“The Prime Minister promised that early steps will be taken to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill with priority basis,” said Mr Mani.

He said that during the meeting that some states have expressed concerns over the Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation and demanded that they be compensated for ten years or beyond for the revenue loss they will incur while rolling out the GST.

Some manufacturing states, including Maharashtra and Gujarat, have demanded that they be allowed to levy two per cent additional tax over and above the state GST rate.

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December. A single rate of GST will replace central excise, state VAT, entertainment tax, octroi, entry tax, luxury tax and purchase tax on goods and services to ensure seamless transfer of goods and services.