CMs conclave in October to discuss key financial issues

New Delhi: On Friday, finance ministers of six states decided to organise a chief ministers’ conclave in October to develop a consensus on financial issues concerning states across the country, the Delhi government said in a statement.

It added that the decision was taken at a meeting of a group of finance ministers and the conclave will be organised in the national capital.

The finance ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, and Kerala attended the meeting while Karnataka finance minister joined it on video conferencing. The Puducherry chief minister and the Punjab finance minister participated via teleconferencing. According to the statement, West Bengal has also agreed to the proposal of chief ministers’ conclave.

“We discussed the discriminatory terms of reference (ToRs) of the 15th Finance Commission and other financial issues concerning federalism,” said the statement, quoting Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

Mr Sisodia said the group of finance ministers also held preliminary discussions on GST revenue collection and futuristic revenue collections.

“All these issues will form the agenda for the chief ministers’ conclave and all CMs of India will be invited to this event,” the deputy chief minister said.

The focus will be on the “discriminatory” ToRs of the current Finance Commission, he added.

Meanwhile, the GST Council on Friday set up a seven-member ministerial panel under Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi to examine the legality of imposing a new tax on certain goods and services to raise resources for natural calamity-hit states like Kerala.

The panel, headed by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and comprising representatives of all states and UTs, also took stock of the shortfall in tax mop up by majority of the states under the new indirect tax regime.

Briefing reporters after the 30th GST Council meeting, Mr Jaitley said the demand of Kerala to allow imposition of higher taxes on goods and services within the state to help tide over the losses suffered due to the recent floods was considered by the Council. It was decided that the matter should be referred to a seven-member Group of Ministers (GoM), which would include representatives from North-Eastern, hilly and coastal states.

 The GoM, which has Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac as members, would submit its report by October 31.