Council to take stock of GST, says Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said that the GST Council would next meet on August 5 to take stock of the roll out of the crucial ‘One Nation One Tax’ across the country from July 1.

Finance minister Arun Jaitely said in the Lok Sabha that at its meeting next week, the Council will also finalise a mechanism on implementation of the anti-profiteering clause, which is aimed at protecting consumer interest.

As per the anti-profiteering law, businesses have to pass on the benefits arising out of lower taxes to the consumer. According to clause 171 of the Goods and Services Act, it is compulsory to pass on the benefit due to reduction in the rate of tax or from input tax credit to the consumer by way of commensurate reduction in prices.

Mr Jaitely, who was replying to a discussion on Supplementary Demand for Grants, was referring to concerns raised by members with regard to impact of the new tax on prices.

He said that it would be mandatory for manufacturers to pass on the benefits of reduction in taxes to consumers.

The finance minister hoped the decision of price cut by automobile sector on account of benefit of input tax credit would be followed by others manufacturers.

He said the council will debate situations in cases where the input tax benefit is not transferred to consumers. “We are meeting a few days from now... and we will finalise the entire mechanism as far as anti-profiteering is concerned”.

“All you need is to make a few examples and then everybody will fall in line. If there is benefit of the input credit then cost correspondingly must decline”. He added that the industry was resistant to this clause and it has been put in the GST law for initial few years to save the interest of consumers.