Skeptical about GST passage in Winter Session: Thomas Isaac

Two days ahead of the crucial GST Council meeting, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac is skeptical about the passage of Goods and Services Tax Bill during the ongoing Winter Session of the Parliament. The GST deadlock raises questions over the April 1, 2017 rollout of the new tax regime.

The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will meet on December 11-12 to try and hammer out an agreeable model. The Centre and the states failed on December 3 to agree on the crucial issue of “dual control” to divide the administrative, auditing and assessing powers between the two governments under the GST.

Isaac told CNBC-TV18, that he is very skeptical about it because the central government's stance does not reveal any prospects of a change in the position. He added that compensation law that has been table has some unacceptable clauses.

On the critical issue of cross-empowerment of administration, there is a view that assessees should be divided horizontally with Rs 1.5 crore be the cut-off base. Under this model, states would to assess businesses with an annual turnover Rs 1.5 crore, while both the Centre and states were to do so for businesses having higher turnover.