Will appoint GST panel head after more talks: FM

At a meeting on Friday, the empowered committee on the goods and services tax (GST), comprising the Union finance minister and finance ministers of states, failed to arrive at a decision on appointing a new chairman, as many members were absent.

The agenda of Friday’s meeting was to appoint a replacement for Abdul Rahim Rather, the last chairman of the committee and former Jammu & Kashmir finance minister. State finance ministers present at the meeting told the media they had “unanimously” chosen to let Finance Minister Arun Jaitley decide on a new chairman.

Jaitley, however, said he would defer the move, opting to first consult state finance ministers who weren’t present at Friday’s meeting. “A number of state finance ministers are busy with their state Budgets. That is why they could not make it. We need to consult them, too. By consensus, we will have the new chairman of the empowered committee in the next few days,” he said.

States that have either presented their Budgets this past week or are about to in the coming days include Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Karnataka.

Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said before taking at a decision on a new chairman, either another meeting would be held soon or Jaitley could consult the members absent on Friday separately. “That is a matter of detail, which I cannot speak about at the moment,” he said.

Jaitley said parliamentary discussions on the Constitution amendment Bill for GST would be held in the second half of the Budget session, starting April 20.

On the mines and coal Bills being passed in the first half of the Budget Session, Jaitley said that the government was happy with the progress on this front. ,“Today the first part of the Parliament session has ended. It has been a session that gives us an immense amount of satisfaction. We had the Budget proposals, which were approved. Additionally, three major pieces of legislation --- on insurance, mining and coal - have all been approved by Parliament,” he said. “Therefore, there will now be a lot of investment coming into the insurance sector. There will be completely non-discretionary and non-discriminatory allocation of coal and mining blocks. Industry will get the minerals and coal it needs. And, mines- and coal-bearing states will get the revenue they need.”