GST ministerial panel against sugar cess to compensate cane farmers

GoM feels that after fixing a Minimum Support Price for sugar at Rs 29 a kg, payment arrears due by mills to cane farmers have come down by Rs 50 billion, to Rs 180 billion

A goods and services tax (GST) ministerial panel, led by Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, is not supporting a proposal for a sugar cess to compensate cane farmers. It does favour a rate reduction on ethanol, from 18 per cent now to 12 per cent.
 
The panel will wait for the Attorney General’s opinion before taking a view on whether it is constitutionally possible to levy a separate cess under GST for sugar. The report will be put before the GST Council at a meeting scheduled on July 21. The five-member panel also has Uttar Pradesh finance minister