GST Council clears State GST, Union Territory GST drafts
16 Mar 2017
A meeting of the Goods and Services Council (GST Council) chaired by union finance minister Arun Jaitley today cleared draft bills for the State GST and Union Territory GST, finance ministry sources said.
The meeting also finalised some of the on major issues, including fixing the threshold limit for registration and full compensation for five years to the states for losses on account of the GST implementation.
With the approval for SGST and UT-GST, the GST Council has now granted formal approval to five legislations - Central GST, Integrated GST, State GST, Compensation and UT GST.
While CGST, IGST, UT-GST, and the compensation laws will need to be passed by the Parliament, the SGST will be taken up by the state government cabinets at their assemblies.
Earlier, the GST Council approved the draft CGST Bill and the draft I GST Bill as vetted by the union law ministry, clearing the deck for the central government to take these two bills to the Parliament for passage in the ongoing budget session.
"We will try both the Lok Sabha and the state assembly take up the laws expeditiously," Jaitley said while addressing the media after the Council meet.
Jaitley said that the next meeting of the Council would likely approve nine rules and regulations, including laws for registration, payment, refunds, invoices, and returns.
The other four, including composition, valuation, ITC, and transition would require a formal approval.
While all the five crucial legislation for the implementation of GST were given the formal nod with the conclusion of Thursday's council meet, Jaitley said there was a possibility that "when the rules are approved, some marginal corrections will be required in the approved legislation."
The officers' committee will send the final draft of the four balanced regulations and the correction in the earlier regulations for review. The GST Council is expected to meet again on 31 March to consider and approve the changes.
Thereafter the Council will look into the planning and implementation of "fitment of various commodities into the tax slab," Jaitley said.
"The GST Council will meet to approve the slabs and then will be ready for GST implementation," he added.
Jaitley said the final issue will be taken up as soon as the 31 March meeting is over as there is enough time for the roll-out, which is set for I July.
