Centre, states make headway on key GST issues

New Delhi: Making headway on the long- pending GST Bill, the Centre and States on Tuesday agreed on the principle that the tax rate will be lower than the current levels even as the broad consensus emerged that the rate should not be part of the statute.
A meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers convened by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also agreed to include in the Constitutional Amendment Bill the mechanism of compensating states for any loss of revenue in first five years of Goods and Service Tax (GST) subsuming all indirect tax levies including VAT. (PTI)