By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 15, 2016: THE Prime Minister yesterday held a meeting to review the preparedness for rollout for GST. The meeting was attended by Union Finance Minister, both the Ministers of State for Finance, senior officers from the Prime Ministers office and Finance Ministry.

In order to ensure that there is no slippage on date of implementation of GST from 1st April, 2017, the Prime Minister reviewed the progress made on various steps needed for the rollout of GST relating to preparation of Model GST laws and rules to be framed, establishment of IT infrastructure for both Centre and States, training of officers of Central and State Governments and outreach for awareness of trade and industry. The Prime Minister directed that all steps must be completed much before 1st April, 2017. The Prime Minister observed that GST Council would need to have intensive meetings to be able to make timely recommendations relating to its mandate provided in Article 279A including making recommendations relating to Model GST laws, GST rates, goods and services that may be subjected to or exempted from GST.