Sitharaman discusses GST with Gujarat FM

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today discussed the issues concerning roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) with Gujarat Finance Minister Saurabh Patel.
"Saurabh Patel FM Gujarat visited. Discussed GST related issues," Sitharaman said in her tweet.
Keen to fast track GST, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already reviewed the progress with regard to the new indirect tax regime and would be shortly meeting the state Finance Ministers to sort out pending issues.
Rollout of GST has been pending since 2011.
According to an official, issues regarding inclusion of petrol and alcohol under GST were also discussed in that meeting.

The ruling party BJP in its manifesto has committed to "bring on board all state governments in adopting GST, addressing all their concerns".

GST would usher in the new indirect taxes regime which will subsume various levies like excise, service and various local taxes.
The UPA government in 2011 introduced a Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha to pave the way for the GST regime which aims at subsuming most of the indirect taxes at the central as well as the state levels.
Sitharaman further said that she was briefed about by teh problems being faced by special economic zone (SEZ) developers and units.

"Was briefed on SEZs. Many challenges. Have to tackle them to boost investors's sentiment especially in manufacturing," she tweeted.
The commerce ministry has time and again raised the concern over imposition of minimum alternate tax (MAT) on these zones.
SEZs, once an attraction for investors, lost their sheen following the imposition of MAT and dividend distribution tax.
Only 185 of the 389 notified SEZs are operational.