From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: The Empowered Committee of States’ Finance Ministers on Goods and Services Tax (GST) elected Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather as its new Chairman. The Empowered Committee meet was also attended by Meghalaya Excise Minister Zenith Sangma.
Rather’s name was proposed by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, who also hold’s the Finance portfolio and supported by Zenith and other Ministers present. The entire process took place in the presence of Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.
The election was necessitated after the resignation of previous Chairman Sushil Kumar Modi. Modi quit after a split in the JD (U)-BJP Government in Bihar, in which he was the Deputy Chief Minister and the Finance Minister.
The new Chairman will have the formidable task of pursuing the proposed new indirect tax regime under the GST, which will subsume excise, service tax and local levies.
