Panel finds fault with GST draft, sends it back to fin min

The House Panel on Finance has said that the GST (Goods and Services Tax) Bill in its current form was not well drafted and required amendment, reports CNBC-TV18 economic policy editor Siddharth Zarabi.

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A whole set of important inclusions in this 115th Constitution Amendment Bill essential for the rollout of GST such as rates, threshold structures and administrative arrangements have been recommended by the panel to be excluded from the Bill.
The panel has also made specific suggestions including the states’ right to levy entry tax and subsuming the entry tax into the GST.
Once this report is formally adopted at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance in Parliament on Friday, the recommendation will go to the finance ministry which will examine the recommendations and perhaps redraft the bill.
Experts add that this will delay the final rollout of the GST and the Prime Minister has also indicated that it will probably be implemented only after a new government is elected. The finance ministry will now focus its energies on the Direct Tax Code (DTC) and in tabling that Bill to Parliament in the monsoon session.