Govt set-up panels on cess on sugar, incentivising digital payment

The government today constituted two panels of state finance ministers for considering issues relating to the levy of cess on sugar and incentivising digital payments under the GST regime.

Both the Group of Ministers (GoM) will submit their reports within 15 days, Finance Ministry said in a statement hours after the meeting of the GST Council.

The GoM will consider issues relating to 'Imposition of Cess on Sugar under GST'.

"Himanta Biswa Sarma, Finance Minister of Assam is convenor and other members of this GoM are Rajesh Agrawal, Finance Minister, Uttar Pradesh; Sudhir Mungatiwar, Finance Minister, Maharashtra; D Jayakumar, Minister for Fisheries and Personnel & Administrative Reforms, Tamil Nadu and T.M. Thomas Isaac, Finance Minister, Kerala," it said.

The other GoM will examine the issues relating to 'Incentivising digital payments in the GST regime'.

The five-member panel to be headed by Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister, Bihar will also have members Nitinbhai Patel, Dy. Chief Minister, Gujarat; Capt. Abhimanyu, Excise & Taxation Minister, Haryana; Amit Mitra, Finance Minister, West Bengal and Manpreet Singh Badal, Finance Minister, Punjab.

The decision to this effect were taken subsequent to GST Council meeting held today, it said.

Earlier in the day, the GST Council veered around to giving up to Rs 100 incentive for digital payments for purchases by consumers, approved a new model for single monthly return and decided to turn the GSTN into a government-owned entity.

The panel, the highest decision-making body for Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, however, deferred a decision on levying a cess on sugar after opposition from some states.