Chairman of the empowered group of
state finance ministers Asim Dasgupta on Tuesday said all states have almost
reached a consensus on the modalities of Goods and Services Tax (GST) which is
likely to be rolled out on schedule on April 1, 2010.
Dasgupta, the West Bengal FM, after a meeting with finance minister Pranab
Mukherjee at his North Block office, said there were some dissenting voices in
the empowered group meeting earlier but now, there was convergence of views.
He said
after the assembly elections in Maharashtra, all state
FMs would meet again to thrash out pending issues. The
empowered group of state FMs had in its last meeting on
September 16 reached a consensus on having a two-tier
unified rate on GST.
The duty structure discussed included a standard rate
and a lower rate for essential commodities. There will
be a special GST rate for a list of precious metals.
Also, there will be a list of exempted items.
Asked whether the dissenting states had agreed to roll
out the tax by the scheduled date, Dasgupta hinted that
BJP ruled states and DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu were thinking
on the same lines on GST.
The empowered group had set up a joint working group
which is working out a framework for constitutional
amendment for the purpose of introducing GST and a
framework for model legislation on GST for the Centre
and the states. The joint working group comprises
officials of the finance ministry and other ministries
of the Union government, and finance secretaries and
commissioners of commercial taxes from states.
Source
: The
Times of India, India, dated 30/09/2009
