GST rollout likely to touch September

New Delhi: Admitting that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council was racing against time on the government’s implementation target of April 1, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said it is hoping to resolve the vexed issue of dual control over assessees in its next meeting on January 16, even as states indicated a September timeline for GST.
“We know the difficulties, we are moving against time. Dual control is a complex issue. We started a discussion that was inconclusive. We have decided to meet on January 16 to untie the knots in this issue,” Jaitley told reporters here after the two-day GST Council meet.
“We will be meeting to conclude the discussion on the gaps in draft laws. The gaps are on two issues. The first pertains to the definition of the word territory (in Integrated GST) and the second is on dual control and cross empowerment,” he said.
Even after eight meetings of the GST Council, the deadlock continues between the Centre and the states on the vexed issue of “cross empowerment”, or dual control of assessees and who will exercise control over them.
The states want exclusive control on businesses with turnover below Rs 1.5 crore (the current threshold for central excise), including the service taxpayers.
The impact of demonetisation on states’ tax revenues was also brought up at the meeting and Jaitley said that the states presented their estimates of December revenue figures based on collections made in November, the month of the demonetisation announcement.
“A number of state finance ministers gave details of how revenue has actually increased in their states during this period. We’ve asked for detailed data in this regard,” he said.
To a query on the impact of the November 8 demonetisation of high-value currency, Jaitley said that excepting the next quarter of the fiscal, the demonetisation-led process of “integrating the informal economy into the formal one” will actually result in higher revenues.
“We will end this year with higher revenues…in both direct and indirect taxes we’ll exceed the budget estimates,” he added.
Instead, declining to set a dateline for implementing the GST, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said demonetisation has hugely impacted states’ tax revenues, while Indian industry itself required more time to prepare for the new indirect tax regime.
“States are making presentation to the Union Finance Minister, saying we’re not geting any money from the Centre,” Mitra told reporters. (IANS)