From CK Nayak
Keep betting, alcohol outside GST: Mukul
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the Centre would sort out compensation issues with states to ensure early roll-out of Goods and Service Tax, a new indirect tax regime that will subsume various levies.
After meeting state finance ministers, he said there is a broad consensus on implementing the GST regime and efforts will be made to sort out the pending issues, especially with regard to compensation for loss of revenue.
“Fixing compensation issue is critical to roll-out of GST,” Jaitley said.
Talking to the reporters after the meeting Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said that most states have agreed to implement GST. “The revenue loss to be suffered by the states due to implementation of GST should be compensated by the Centre in simple and transparent manner,” he said.
Sangma, who holds Finance portfolio, demanded that at least for the Northeastern states betting and gaming should be kept out of GST purview since these are traditional games played over decades.
“Another item alcohol, which is widely consumed in the region and garners good revenue for the Hill State should also be exempted from the purview of GST,” he said.
The Chief Minister also batted for keeping the threshold limit of GST for the small traders with a turnover of ten lakh rupees turn over who constitute almost two third of business community in the landlocked region. “Most of the contentious issues were ironed out in the Shillong meeting,” he said.
The GST, a major tax reform initiative that seeks to subsume levies such as excise and service tax, was initially scheduled to have come into force across the country from April 1, 2010, but has been hanging fire because of resistance from the states. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the state finance ministers that some of their concerns would be woven into the GST legislation, sources said.
Union Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman in her comments said that the states have been proactive in helping a broader consensus to emerge.
When asked if the Budget speech will give roadmap on GST, Sitharaman said: “We are spending time to get something in Budget but is a prerogative of the Finance Minister (Jaitley) that what and how he is going to say.” (With inputs from PTI)