Now that the President Pranab Mukherji has given his assent to the Constitutional Amendment Bill enabling the Goods and Service Tax last week, the next step is the formation of the GST Council. According to the provisions of the Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016 a Good and Service Tax Council (GST Council) has to be setup within 60 days from the date of the commencement of the said Act.
The Union Finance Ministry has notified 12th Sept, 2016 as the date on which the provisions of the Act allowing for setting up of GST council shall come into force. In other words, GST council will have to be setup within 60 days from 12th Sept, 2016.
The CGST council shall be chaired by the Union Finance Minister Mr Arun Jaitley and will have Ministers in charge of Finance/Taxation and State Finance Ministers as members.
GST Council will make recommendation on the following aspects-
- The taxes, cesses, and surcharges levied by the Union, the States and the local bodies which may be subsumed in the goods and services tax;
- the goods and services that may be subjected to, or exempted from the goods and services tax
- Model Goods and Services Tax Laws, principles of levy, apportionment of Goods and Services Tax levied on supplies in the course of inter-State trade or commerce under article 269A and the principles that govern the place of supply;
- Threshold limit of turnover below which goods and services may be exempted from goods and services tax;
- The rates including floor rates with bands of goods and services tax;
- Any special rate or rates for a specified period, to raise additional resources during any natural calamity or disaster;
- Special provision with respect to the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand; and
- Any other matter relating to the goods and services tax, as the Council may decide.
