GST Council to hold its first meeting today

Goods and Service Tax, GST, Council will hold its first meeting in New Delhi today. The council will decide on long pending issues of threshold limit for applicability of the tax as well as the limit for dual control between Centre and states. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will chair the meeting.The GST is a single indirect tax which will subsume most of the central and state taxes such as VAT, excise duty, service tax and central sales tax.

The two-day meet of the GST Council is likely to iron out issues between Centre and states for rolling out the new indirect tax regime from 1st of April next year. It will take up the discussion on



issues of dual control and threshold with states demanding that the legal and administrative power for imposing tax on entities with turnover of up to 1.5 crore rupees. 

The Centre has proposed that small traders having annual turnover of up to 20 to 25 lakh rupees can be exempted from GST but states have demanded that the limit be kept at 10 lakh rupees. 

GST, which is considered as the biggest tax reform since Independence, will do away with the indirect taxes and usher in one tax for the entire country. The bill was unanimously passed by Parliament last month and over 18 States have ratified the bill.