GST Council Meet
THE Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressing the GST Council yesterday. The third meeting of the GST Council, which is the decision making body, ended today a day ahead of schedule without reaching a decision on the GST tax structure.
Addressing the media later, the FM said:
Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council had virtually reached a consensus on compensation for the states and once that decision is formally endorsed, the issue of finalising the tax rate structure under the GST regime will be taken up at the next meeting of the council on November 3-4.
On Compensation to the States, the options were whether to do it in the GST rate structure, introduce a cess or some other structure. Once this decision was finalised, deciding on the GST tax structure would become easier.
After the tax structure is finalised, the only remaining issue will be draft legislations which will be taken up in the fifth meeting of the council.
While the argument of less slabs in the GST rate structure is a good, it should not lead to loss of revenue for the government or more burden on the tax payer for the sake of uniformity.
Please see our COB(WEB) today for more on the GST Council Meet. Incidentally our COB(WEB) has just completed ten years.