Draft Compensation Bill approved by GST Council: Finance Minister Jaitley

Udaipur (Rajasthan) [India], Feb. 18 (ANI): While announcing the approval of the Draft Compensation Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the draft law will now be sent to the cabinet and subsequently tabled during the second budget session from April 25-May 13. "The legally vetted draft of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) bill arrived before the Council in which a discussion took place at all its levels. And the GST Council has formally approved the first law. The law will not come to the Council again. This will be taken to the cabinet where the cabinet will approve it. We will try to present it in the second budget session," Jaitley said while addressing a press conference here. The draft law seeks to compensate states which suffer any losses during the first five years of GST. Jaitley also informed that they did not discuss the anti-profiteering clause in this GST Council meeting. He was also of the opinion that they will require one major meeting after March 4-5 to give approval to those specific items in relation to each of the slabs. The 10th council meeting of the GST to vet the draft supporting legislations crucial for its implementation took place here today. The meeting was being chaired by the GST council who aimed to get clearance on a number of issues, including the formation of a GST Appellate Tribunal, which will discuss matters related to GST implementation and suggestions. Earlier, the ninth council meeting saw no consensus being made on levying and collection of Integrated GST, a special privilege given to the Central Government with regards to imposing GST on inter-State supply of goods and services. This issue has been incorporated for discussion in this meeting. Additionally, the council is expected to throw light on the implications of CGST and SGST as well, while initiating the approval of the Compensation Law. Furthermore, as per reports of the previous meeting, the scheduled date for GST was postponed to July 1, 2017, which was earlier April 1, 2017. This has been re-affirmed during the announcement of the Union Budget 2017-18 on February 1, 2017, by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The GST proposal is one that has been deemed as 'much-awaited' by industry analysts on several occasions. It has been glorified as an amalgamation of all indirect taxes to be paid on sale, manufacture and consumption of goods and services on a national level. Additionally, it is said to be an initiative that would simplify monitoring and collecting indirect taxes, owing to the fact that post its incorporation, indirect taxes would all fall under a single bracket. The constitutional amendment containing the GST was passed in August 2016. (ANI)