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Journalism of Courage
Ahead of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers meeting on the proposed Goods and Services Tax on July 21,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today met the chief ministers of Congress-ruled states to build consensus among them first and put pressure on other states to stick to the proposed April 1,2011 deadline.
Around 11 states attended the meeting including Delhi,Maharashtra,Assam,Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh to discuss the roadblocks in the implementation of the new tax regime and the finance minister asked these states to prepare a list of issues concerning them and submit it before the EC meeting.
The GST rollout has already been delayed by a year due to lack of consensus on various matters including tax rates,tax base,exemption list and fiscal autonomy,which states fear,would be lost once the GST is in place.
Though the centre has tried to dispel the apprehensions,the states dont seem to be convinced and BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh have been raising concerns over these issues for quite some time now.
Sources said that with this hurriedly called meeting,the finance minister wanted to secure the consent of at least Congress-ruled states and simultaneously built pressure on opposing states to iron out the differences.
Delhi chief Minister Shiela Dixit told reporters that the finance minister has assured the states that all their concerns would be addressed.
He assured us that all issues will be addressed. The consensus is on bringing in GST. All of us want GST, she said.
When asked if the states had agreed to the draft constitutional amendment,she said,We do not have any problem with that.
GST proposes to do away with most of the Central and state levies including excise,service tax and VAT and reduce the cascading effect of the taxes.
