GST Council approves state GST, Union Territory GST law

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Thursday approved two crucial Bills -- State and Union Territory GST -- paving the way for tabling of the GST Bills in the current session of Parliament.

The Council has already cleared Central GST (CGST) and integrated GST (IGST) Bills and the Compensation legislation.

"Law relating to registrations, invoices and returns have already been approved. The council has now approved all the five laws. The next meeting of the GST Council is on March 31 at 5 p.m. in Delhi," Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said after the GST Council meet.

In compensation, the law draft on cess law has been provisioned.

"The provision of cap of 15 percent on cess has been approved by the GST Council," Jaitley added.

The GST Council headed by Jaitley earlier in the day announced the panels' consensus on significant issues including fixing the threshold limit for registration and full compensation for five years to the states for losses on account of the GST implementation.

The Council's nod has acted as another decisive step in the run up to the implementation of the overhauled tax regime from July 1.

Earlier, the GST Council chaired by Jaitley approved the draft CGST Bill and the draft I GST Bill as vetted by the Union Law Ministry. It cleared the deck for the Central Government to take these two Bills to the Parliament for their passage in the ongoing Budget Session.