English Typing
Paragraph
Within
a
fortnight
of
President
Pranab
Mukherjee
signing
off
on
the
122nd
Constitution
Amendment
Bill
to
introduce
the
Goods
and
Services
Tax
(GST)
regime,
work
on
the
next
steps
has
begun.
The
GST
Council,
led
by
the
Union
Finance
Minister
and
with
representatives
from
all
States,
had
its
first
meeting
on
September
22-23,
flagging
off
the
process
of
determining
the
nitty-gritty
of
the
new
indirect
tax
system
and
resolving
differences
on
crucial
first-principle
issues.
Time
is
of
the
essence,
as
just
six
months
remain
for
the
April
1,
2017
deadline
that
the
Centre
has
set
for
ringing
in
the
GST.
Finance
Minister
Arun
Jaitley
has
admitted
that
the
deadline
is
'challenging',
but
going
by
the
outcomes
of
the
first
meeting
of
the
Council,
it
is
clearly
doable.
Apart
from
agreeing
on
the
rules
and
timetable
for
its
meetings,
the
Council
reached
a
consensus
on
the
threshold
turnover
for
a
business
to
be
covered
by
the
GST,
Rs.20
lakh,
which
ensures
that
the
new
tax
will
not
be
a
compliance
burden
for
small
retailers
and
traders.
It
has
also
agreed
on
the
draft
compensation
formula
for
States'
revenue
losses
and
accepted
industry's
rationale
to
subsume
myriad
cess
levies
in
the
GST.
An
important
signal
at
this
juncture
is
the
Centre's
decision
to
let
go
of
the
Central
Board
of
Excise
and
Customs's
proposal
to
create
dual
control
over
the
assessment
of
businesses
with
an
annual
turnover
of
up
to
Rs.1.5
crore
and
give
States
that
power.
Experts
reckon
that
a
large
number
of
assessees
fall
below
this
threshold.
By
conceding
ground
on
this
contentious
issue,
the
Finance
Minister
has
sent
a
welcome
message
of
give-and-take.
This
is
important
given
the
need
to
resolve
more
tangled
Centre-State
tax
issues
on
the
Council's
agenda
quickly,
if
the
model
laws
for
Central,
State
and
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