The GST Council, to be chaired by the Union Finance Minister and includes State Ministers as members, will decide on all key issues relating to the indirect tax levy, including the rates, and will come into effect from September 12.
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Mr Sarma said after Brazil and Canada, India will be the third country in the world to collect GST by both the Centre and the State through a new body – GST Council (GSTC).
It will also decide the threshold for levy of the tax, the date from which GST will be applicable to petroleum products as well as the dispute resolution mechanism.
The government targets to implement the new pan-India indirect tax regime from April 1, 2017.
According to Mukherjee, who was Union Finance Minister before he became president, the aggregate provisions made by all scheduled commercial banks have consequently increased from Rs 73,887 crore for the year March 2015 to Rs 170,630 crore for the year ending March 2016.
The GST is a single indirect tax that proposes to subsume most central and state taxes like Value Added Tax, service tax, central sales tax, excise duty, additional customs duty and special additional customs duty.
The council will also have to finalise the number of slabs the GST will be pegged at for different categories of goods and services. Any constitutional amendment bill after being passed by Parliament has to be ratified by at least 16 states.
The State government does not foresee any revenue drop due to the implementation of GST.
“Certain goods will be exempted from the GST while bullion and jewellery will be charged at one-two per cent”, it said regarding classification of goods for applying GST rates.
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“Since the amendment has been approved by the President of India and has become law of the land, there is no necessity for the state legislative assembly to ratify the GST bill”, Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
