10th GST Council Meeting – Highlights & Updates

The 10th meeting of the GST Council (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Council’) was held on 18 February 2017 in Udaipur, which was chaired by the Hon’ble Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley. The key highlights of the said meeting are as under:

• Prospects of Goods and Services Tax (GST) becoming a reality from July 1, 2017, brightened further with the GST Council clearing the legally vetted draft of the GST Compensation Bill.

• However, there was no discussion came up for the Anti-profeeting during the meeting.

• The GST Council decided against giving additional powers to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) under the Indirect tax act. Mr. Jaitley said that the CAG is already empowered under the CAG Act to call for any information from the government in relation to public finances. Under the taxation law, it need not be separately given. The income tax act has not given any separate powers to CAG.

• As far as the alleged clashes between the Center and the States over the drafting of the minutes of the previous GST Council meeting are concerned, The dispute over the minutes related to the wordings over the division of new registrants, permission to States to tweak division of taxpayers after consultation with the Centre and referral of disputes relating to imports and exports to the Center.

• The minutes of the 9th meeting of the GST Council, held on January 16, 2017, had recorded that the States have been given the concession to change the formula over and above the agreed upon 90:10 division of tax assessees below the annual turnover threshold of Rs 1.5 crore between States and Center, respectively, and an equal division of assessees for a turnover of above Rs 1.5 crore, after consultation with the Center. Also, it had said that the GST Council had approved equal division of new registrants.

The 10th GST Council meeting ended with a positive note as the long time unresolved clashes seemed to come to an end. Another good sign was that the political differences over demonetization that hampered negotiations seem out of the way.

Source: https://www.gstcouncil.gov.in