The Goods and Services Tax Council has moved a significant step closer to finalising the draft Central GST (CGST) and State GST (SGST) laws that must be passed in Parliament — along with two other laws — to bring the GST into implementation, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced on Friday.
The Council will meet again on January 3 and 4 to discuss the contentious issue of cross-empowerment, the only major issue that is lacking consensus, he added. At the next meeting, the CGST and SGST laws would be being framed in legal language and placed before the States.
“The CGST and SGST laws, a total of 197 provisions and five schedules, have been approved,” Mr. Jaitley said at a press conference following the completion of the Seventh GST Council meeting. “The legally vetted copy of the drafts will be circulated to the States. Only issues of dual control and cross empowerment are left.”
Bi-monthly compensation
Regarding the compensation law, the Finance Minister said a few issues were left to be settled, such as the source of the compensation fund. He added that compensation to States for the loss of revenue, if any, from the GST rollout, would be paid every two months.
