Arun Jaitley said the council was expecting the other three draft laws also to be finalised in its next meeting to be held on March 4 and March 5 in Delhi
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, which is racing against time to finalise draft legislations for implementing the unified indirect tax across the country by July 1, on Saturday approved the draft state compensation law at its meeting in Udaipur.
The council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, also provided clarifications on recommendations sent by it to the legal committee on three other laws – Central GST, state GST and integrated GST – which have to be cleared by the Parliament in the second part of the Budget session beginning March 9 so that the July 1 deadline for the roll out of GST is met.
“In today’s meeting, we have moved forward in the legislative drafting,” Jaitley briefed the press after the council meeting.
The FM said the draft compensation law will now be sent to the Cabinet for approval and placed in the Parliament in the coming session; “compensation law, which will make good losses of states due to GST for the first five years, has been formally approved by the GST Council. It will be taken to the cabinet for approval. We will try to pass it in the second part of the Budget session”.
He said the council was expecting the other three draft laws also to be finalised in its next meeting to be held on March 4 and March 5 in Delhi.
If the model laws were ready before the second part of Budget session then Jaitley said CGST, IGST and Compensation Bills would be passed in the Parliament and the SGST law would be cleared by state legislatives.
He said there were many contentious issues that came up for clarification by the legal committee of the council that vets the draft laws.
These related to appeal tribunals at the Centre and in states, its constitution, eligibility and delegation of power.
There were also concerns over the exemptions that needed to be given during the transition phase to the industry by way of more time to prepare. How to categorise works contract; where to put it under services and value added tax (VAT), definition of agriculture and other such issues needed to be sorted out by the council.
“The council has given its opinion on these issues through a consensus. Laws (CGST, SGST, IGST and compensation law) are finalised, only these clarifications have to be incorporated in them. Hopefully, we will try to clear the laws on March 4 and March 5,” said the Jaitley.
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