Jaitley to brief Parliamentary panel on progress made on GST

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will tomorrow brief a Parliamentary panel that includes Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on the progress made on Goods and Service Tax (GST) since the landmark law was passed by the Parliament last month.

With the government planning to implement the new GST regime from April 1 next year, Jaitley will brief a meeting of the 30-member Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Finance and Corporate Affairs tomorrow on the new indirect tax regime.

Sources said Revenue Secretary Hashmukh Adhia will also be present at the meeting.

Jaitley is the Chairman of the Committee that besides Gandhi also includes Kamal Nath (Congress), Supriya Sadanand Sule (NCP) and Udit Raj (BJP) among the 20 members from Lok Sabha. Prominent among the 10 members from Rajya Sabha are Digvijaya Singh (Congress), Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Independent), Satish Chandra Misra (BSP) and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC).
 

Since the time Parliament approved the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill to bring Goods and Services Tax (GST), the biggest reform in India's indirect tax structure since the economy began to be opened up 25 years ago, more than half of the 31 assemblies in states and union territories have approved it.

Subsequent to that, GST has been notified and it has now become a law. A GST Council, headed by Jaitley and having members from each of the states, has been constituted.

The Council, which will decide on the tax rate, among other things, has already held its first meeting. It is scheduled to hold its second meeting tomorrow.

The proposed GST would subsume various central (excise duty, additional excise duty, service tax, countervailing or additional customs duty, special additional duty of customs), as well as state-level indirect taxes (VAT/sales tax, purchase tax, entertainment tax, luxury tax, octroi, entry tax, among others).

Under the GST, there will only be a national-level central GST and a state-level GST spanning the entire value chain for all goods and services, with some exemptions.

Alcoholic liquor for human consumption is out of the GST regime. Petroleum crude, high speed diesel, motor spirit (petrol), natural gas and aviation turbine fuel will also be out for now. GST Council will decide until when.