The government has set up 18 sectoral groups, comprising senior members from the Centre and the States, to ensure the smooth rollout of the Goods and Services Tax, it announced on Friday.
“As decided in the 14th Meeting of the GST Council held on May 18-19, 2017 in Srinagar, J&K, 18 sectoral groups have been constituted representing various sectors of the economy in order to ensure smooth rollout of GST,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
These sectoral groups are to ensure a timely response to the problems of their respective sector by interacting and examining representations received from trade and industry associations, highlighting specific issues for the smooth transition of the respective sector to the GST regime, and preparing sector-specific draft guidance.
The 18 sectors that will be represented by these groups include banking, telecom, exports, IT & ITeS, transport and logistics, textiles, MSMEs, oil and gas, gems and jewellery, government services, food processing, e-commerce, big infrastructure, transport and tourism, handicraft, media and entertainment, drugs and pharmaceuticals, and mining.
“The officials of these sectoral groups will deal with the issues and the problems of the respective sector(s) they represent,” the statement added. “Concerned industry groups/associations or even individual industry representative(s) may approach the respective sectoral group officers with their problems, if any, relating to GST implementation who, in turn, will try to guide and help them in resolving the same.”
