The government is keeping a close watch on the day-to-day progress in the implementationof the Goods and Services Tax at the highest levels with Union Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley holding a review meeting with Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, CBEC Chairperson Vanaja Sarna and other officials on Monday.
Implementation tracked
The meeting, chaired by Mr. Jaitley, was followed by another video-conference meeting between Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha and senior Finance Ministry officials, including Ms. Sarna, and senior officials from other government Departments.
“The Finance Minister wants to be on top of things and wants to be kept in the loop on all routine updates on GST,” one senior Finance Ministry official told The Hindu . “So far, the implementation has been very smooth,” he said.
In a statement, the Finance Ministry indicated that such meetings would take place on a weekly basis.
‘Avoiding shortage’
“Cabinet Secretary Mr. Sinha has asked every Secretary to take up the responsibility of their own stakeholders, trade and industry and with state officers as far as implementation of GST is concerned,” the statement said. The government had asked all the Departments to ensure that there was no shortage of products and consumer items in order to keep a check on prices, the statement from the Ministry added.
A special emphasis was laid on keeping prices of essential commodities under check, the statement said.
Mr. Sinha also asked the departments concerned to ensure that retailers, dealers and shopkeepers displayed a ready price list under GST of the items sold by them.
The government, on its part, must ensure that the benefits of GST were passed on to the consumers so as to keep inflation in check, he said.
The meeting with the Cabinet Secretary was attended by Secretaries or senior officers from the Ministries and Departments of Textile, Food & Consumer Affairs, Food Processing, Railways, MSME, Rural Development, Tourism, Fertilizer, Pharmaceuticals, and Financial Services, among others.
