GST
COUNCIL - POLITY
News: Hold urgent meeting of GST Council, West Bengal’s Mitra urges FM
What's
in the news?
● Former West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Wednesday wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking an urgent meeting of the the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, which he underlined had not been held in the past four-and-a-half months.
What
is the GST Council?
● The GST Council is a joint forum of the Centre and the states was set up by the President as per Article 279A (1) of the amended Constitution (Hence, It is a constitutional body).
Composition
of GST Council:
It shall consist of the
following.
●
Union
Finance Minister (Chairperson)
●
The Union Minister of State (MoS)
in-charge of Revenue of finance (Member)
●
The Minister In-charge of taxation or
finance or any other Minister nominated by each State Government (Members)
●
One-half of the total number of Members of
the Goods and Services Tax Council shall constitute the quorum at its meetings.
●
Central government - ⅓ rd voting power
●
State government - ⅔ rd voting power
● Decisions not binding (as per recent SC judgement).
Functions
of GST Council:
As per Article 279A (4), the Council will make
recommendations to the Union and the States on important issues related to GST,
like
●
Taxes, cesses, and surcharges to be
subsumed under the GST.
●
Goods and services which may be subject to,
or exempt from GST.
●
The threshold limit of turnover for
application of GST.
●
Rates of GST.
●
Model GST laws, principles of levy,
apportionment of IGST and principles related to place of supply.
●
Special provisions with respect to the
eight north eastern states, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and
Uttarakhand.
●
GST rates will include the floor rates
with bands, special rates for raising additional resources during natural
disasters/ calamities, special provisions for certain States, etc.