West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra was on Friday elected the new chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The announcement was made by union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha following a meeting of state finance ministers here on Friday that was also attended by union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
"We are hopeful that GST will be passed in the Budget session (parliament). We are getting support from all the states present here, all parties on GST," Sinha told reporters here.
Mitra takes over from Kerala Finance Minister K.M Mani who had to resign in November last due to corruption charges.
He will be the second chairman of the empowered committee from West Bengal, after Asim Dasgupta of the CPI-M, who held the post during the UPA government's tenure.
Mitra has earlier served for long as secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), prior to joining politics in 2011 and becoming finance minister in the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal.
The GST Bill, which proposes to reform India's indirect tax regime, is currently stalled in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling NDA lacks majority.
