Uncertainty over GST remains as Council leaves stormy issues for Jan meet

The GST Council is yet to evolve a consensus on the prickly issue of administrative turf over assessees, which could make or break implementation of the new indirect taxation system from April 1, 2017. The Council did not take up the issue at its two-day meeting on Thursday and Friday even as it cleared all other provisions of draft model GST Bill and whole of compensation Bill.

The next meeting of the GST Council, slated to take place on January 3 and 4, will try to resolve the issue of dividing the administrative powers between the Centre and states, but the signals given by the state governments on Friday suggest that it would be a difficult task to resolve it. The meeting will also take up integrated GST (IGST) Bill.

“That leaves us with a very important work of IGST law and the cross empowerment,” finance minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the meeting