GST Alive?

By Vijay Kumar

WHILE everyone has almost written off the GST, it seems to have risen like a phoenix. At a meeting of the empowered committee of State Finance Ministers at Bhubaneswar yesterday, the State Governments accepted most of the suggestions of the Committee constituted by the Finance Minister Chidambaram.

Chairman of the empowered committee of State Finance Ministers, Sushil Kumar Modi said, "This meeting puts an end to the long deadlock. We can move forward on GST. The central government has agreed to bring in the necessary changes in the Constitution amendment Bill to reflect the consensus achieved". Just a day before, the Empowered Committee had removed a major hurdle by agreeing to the CST compensation formula suggested by the Centre.

GST aims at an economic unification of the country with no trade barriers between states and strong persuasive politics can ensure this economic reality soon or will this be drowned in the political cacophony, which we have to live with in the ensuing elections?