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GST meet fails to clear deadlock on jurisdiction

There are serious differences between Centre and states as to who will assess small traders and services under GST.

New Delhi: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) enabling legislations are unlikely to be introduced in the current session of the Parliament, which is supposed to end on Friday as the difference between Centre and States still persists.

The GST Council, which is a high-powered committee of Centre and all the states, on Sunday didn't discuss the crucial issue of jurisdiction over tax assessees under the new indirect tax regime.

There are serious differences between Centre and states as to who will assess small traders and services under GST. The 6th GST council meeting on Sunday used all the time in going clause by clause of the voluminous GST draft legislations.

With the discussion on model laws and dual control still remaining, the GST legislations — CGST, IGST and compensation law — is unlikely to be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament which ends on December 16.

Asked if the delay would derail the process, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said this time the Budget session will begin from January. With the Centre and states again failing to sort out contentious issue of dual control of assessees, GST rollout from April 1 next year is now looking virtually impossible.

The GST council meeting on Monday as been postponed due to a holiday. The next meeting of the GST Council is now scheduled for December 22-23.
States like Kerala and Tamil Nadu said that meeting the deadline was not possible and GST could be rolled out from September. “In the draft legislation, there are about 195 sections. So it is the core bill of the legislation. We discussed 99 sections and a few clauses need to be redrafted. We would change that during the course of time. Hopefully, in the next meeting we would be able to clear the legislation part,” said Mr Jaitley.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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