Constitutional amendment bill on GST come by the year end

Union min­is­ter of state for com­merce and indus­try said that the Cen­tral Govt was close to resolv­ing the long pend­ing issue on Goods and Ser­vices Tax (GST).

“The finance min­is­ter has held sev­er­al meet­ings with the chief min­is­ter and state finance min­is­ters. It is like­ly that a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment would be intro­duced by the end of the year. The issues raised by the states about com­pen­sa­tion have been addressed. Cen­tral Govt are very close on solv­ing the GST,” Union min­is­ter of state for com­merce and indus­try said

Some states includ­ing Kar­nata­ka had raised issues on GST com­pen­sa­tion, besides indi­rect levies such as excise, ser­vice and local tax­es. The rev­enue loss to states due to imple­men­ta­tion of GST should be com­pen­sat­ed by the cen­tre, Kar­nata­ka has demanded.

Jait­ley has also promised to exam­ine issues over com­pen­sa­tion to states for imple­ment­ing the GST. Jam­mu and Kash­mir finance min­is­ter and Empow­ered Com­mit­tee chair­man on GST Abdul Rahim Rather had said that all states are on board and only some con­cerns need to be addressed by the Cen­tre. “Every state wants GST to be imple­ment­ed. Only they want their con­cerns are addressed,” Rather had said after meet­ing with state finance min­is­ters recently.