GST Council discusses issues related to Integrated GST

The Goods and Services (GST) Council on Tuesday discussed issues related to Integrated Goods and Services Tax in a meeting held in New Delhi and chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The council has ministers from states as members. It will meet again tomorrow to make consensus on key issues including dual control over assessees.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said, all the coastal states, irrespective of parties' affiliation demanded state jurisdiction up to 12 nautical miles in high seas to levy GST on trade of goods.

The states also demanded increase in the number of items on which cess is to be levied to compensate the states to deal with revenue loss post demonetisation. In the previous meeting held last month, the council had approved the primary drafts of Central GST and state GST laws.

The council had also cleared the basic draft of compensation law. Under it, the states will be fully compensated for any loss of revenue for five years due to the implementation of new direct tax regime.

The compensation to the states will be paid every two months. The Centre is keen to finalise the draft GST legislations to ensure they are tabled in Parliament and state assemblies in the ensuing Budget Sessions.