GST Council agrees on law for compensating states, to meet again to decide on dual control, IGST

New Delhi: The GST Council will meet again on Jan 3-4 to decide on dual control and IGST.

Primary draft of CGST and SGST law has been approved by the Council today, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at the end of the two-day meeting of the GST Council.

He further said that legally vetted draft of law for compensation to states will be placed before GST Council at the next meeting.

Compensation to states for loss of revenue from rollout of GST will be paid every two months, FM said.

States will be compensated 100 % of the loss which is directly attributable to GST implementation for a period of 5 years.

 

FM @arunjaitley : States will be compensated 100 % of the loss which is directly attributable to GST implementation for a period of 5 years — Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) December 23, 2016

FM Jaitley will hold budget consultations with state finance ministers in second half of GST Council meeting on Jan 3-4.

The dual control is also part of the Integrated-GST legislation that Parliament needs to pass before the new regime is rolled out.

But for this stumbling block, mirror legislations of Central-GST and State-GST, that have to be approved by Parliament and state assemblies respectively, neared finality with most clauses agreed upon.

Three consecutive meetings of the GST Council have not been able to take up the issue of dual control. Some states like West Bengal and Kerala want a minimum turnover criteria be fixed to decide who control which assessee, a proposal the Centre is not agreeable to because states lack expertise on levies like service tax.