GST

Finance Minister of Kerala KM Mani become new chairman of GST Empowered Committee

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Ker­ala finance min­is­ter KM Mani has been appoint­ed chair­man of the empow­ered com­mit­tee of state finance min­is­ters on Goods & Ser­vices Tax (GST).

The GST, a much-await­ed reform to replace mul­ti­ple indi­rect tax­es with one levy, is pro­posed to be rolled out from April 2016.

After wide con­sul­ta­tions with all states and Union Ter­ri­to­ries, the gen­er­al con­sen­sus was that Mani may take over as the new chair­man of the com­mit­tee, the finance min­istry said in a state­ment on Wednes­day. “This is an impor­tant devel­op­ment for the imple­men­ta­tion of Goods and Ser­vices Tax with effect from April 1, 2016,” the state­ment added.

The empow­ered com­mit­tee chair­man’s post fell vacant after Abdul Rahim Rather, the for­mer finance min­is­ter of Jam­mu & Kash­mir, quit fol­low­ing the defeat of the Nation­al Con­fer­ence in state elec­tions held in December.
The chair­man of the com­mit­tee has gen­er­al­ly been from an oppo­si­tion­ruled state. Mani rep­re­sents the Ker­ala Con­gress (M) and is also a senior finance minister.

His appoint­ment could help the gov­ern­ment gar­ner sup­port from the oppo­si­tion when Par­lia­ment takes up the Con­sti­tu­tion amend­ment bill for GST after the recess and ensure its roll­out from April 2016.

Finance min­is­ter Arun Jait­ley said at an event that after the pas­sage of the bill, the gov­ern­ment will work on the GST leg­is­la­tion with the empow­ered committee.

Source: Eco­nom­ic Times

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