#Kolkata : The important Goods and Services Tax Bill is a step closer to reality, with all states except Tamil Nadu backing it unanimously, the Centre said on Tuesday.While Tamil Nadu has some reservations against the GST, all other states backed in unanimously, Jaitley said.
“Virtually all the states have supported the idea of GST today barring Tamil Nadu which has expressed some reservations. TN has offered a few suggestions which have been noted by the committee,” Jaitley said.
Hours after the announcement, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and urged him to accept the amendments proposed by her government to the GST bill.
She said the GST, in its proposed format, would affect the autonomy of the Tamil Nadu government.
The GST Bill is the biggest tax reform in 10 years and the Narendra Modi government is desperate to pass it in Parliament over consecutive sessions.
The government now hopes to have the Bill cleared by Rajya Sabha in the monsoon session of Parliament. It has already been passed by the Lok Sabha.
GST which aims to bring the country under a unified tax regime was proposed by the Congress-led UPA government in 2006.
Shedding light on Tuesday’s meeting, Empowered Committee Chairman Amit Mitra said: “This was a historic meeting. Never seen such a large attendance of state Finance Ministers earlier. There was absolute consensus on GST in the meeting. Concerns were on dual control and the solution was GST will be on above Rs 1.5 crore turnout,” said Mitra.
Another round of discussion with states will take place in the second week of July, Mitra added.
The other issue discussed at the meet, attended by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and 22 other state finance ministers, was the revenue neutral rate (RNR).
“It will come up for discussion again in the next meeting to find out what is the optimal rate,” Mitra said.
While the panel of Chief Economic Advisor had suggested RNR of 17 per cent, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy put it at 26 per cent.
The government had earlier targeted to roll out the nationwide single tax regime from April 1, 2016 but the Constitutional Amendment Bill on GST has been stuck in the Rajya Sabha due to opposition by the Congress party.
On the contentious issue of the Constitutional cap on the GST rate, the Finance Minister said: “There is a complete consensus on that, there should not be any such ceiling as exigencies may arise in future. Now it is left to the GST council.”
On the issue of additional 1 per cent tax as demanded by the producing states, he said the Centre was flexible on the matter. As GST is a consumption-based tax, the producing states had been demanding this extra tax.
Regarding the future roadmap, Jaitley said: “We will try our best to bring the Constitutional amendment in the monsoon session of Parliament. Then the CGST and SGST legislations will be put in place.” By Agencies
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