All are on board for GST, except Jaya, says Arun Jaitley

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said there is a broad consensus over the Goods and Service Tax ( GST) proposal, with Tamil Nadu the only state to express some reservations.

After attending a meeting of the empowered committee of finance ministers in the city, Mr Jaitley said, “Every state has given its opinion and virtually all of them have supported the idea of GST. Tamil Nadu has some reservations. They have offered some suggestions that we have noted down.” The meeting of the empowered committee was chaired by West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra.

Mr Jaitley turned down the Congress demand to write a cap for the proposed GST into the Constitution. He claimed that the empowered committee has reached a consensus on having no such constitutional cap. “There was complete consensus that there should not be a constitutional cap because contingencies might arise in future. The quantum of taxation is fixed by the GST committee and it is best to leave it to the committee’s discretion,” he added.

The Congress, the original author of the tax reform, had said it would back the GST Bill if the government agreed to cap the tax rate at 18 per cent and create an independent mechanism to resolve disputes on revenue-sharing between states.

Speaking on the implementation of a one per cent interstate levy, Mr Jaitley said the Centre was flexible on the issue of an additional one per cent tax for two years as compensation to the producing states.

Asked about the proposed dates of passage of the GST Bill, Mr Jaitley said there was no deadline for its implementation but added that he would push for a constitutional amendment for the GST Bill in the RS in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. The roadmap for GST implementation would include first a constitutional amendment, ratification of state GSTs by all Assemblies, and then the passage of the GST Bill.