New Delhi, Nov. 24: State finance ministers are scheduled to meet on December 6 to break their deadlock with the Centre on the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) to reduce multiplicity of taxes.
They will hold discussions on the requirement of a constitution amendment bill for rolling out the proposed GST, which is all set to miss even the revised deadline of April one, 2011.
“The empowered committee of state finance ministers would meet on December 6 to arrive at a consensus on constitution amendments needed for GST,” a union finance ministry official said.
The Centre’s proposal for a GST council to effect changes in GST besides a dispute settlement body as part of the constitution amendment bill has not been agreed to by some states.
The official said the Union finance ministry is unlikely to do away with GST Council and Dispute Settlement Body, even as the chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers, Mr Asim Dasgupta, proposed it at a meeting in Goa.
“The Centre won’t accept any changes in the basic structure of GST. The functioning of Dispute Settlement Body and GST Council is essential in the functioning of GST,” he added.
The official said it was necessary to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill for the implementation of GST, which will subsume indirect taxes like excise duty and service tax at the central level and VAT on the state front, besides local levies.
Amendments are needed to roll out GST as the Centre cannot impose taxes beyond manufacturing and the states will not be able to levy service tax.
A draft constitution bill has suggested a council chaired by the Union finance minister with states as members.