By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAR 16, 2017: AT the latest meet the GST Council today approved the twin laws of SGST and UTGST with some minor editing. With this approval, all the five laws have been cleared by the Council and the Centre is preparing to go to the Union Cabinet for seeking approval of the same as a 'Money Bill'. It is expected to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on March 27 and pass the same by April 12 even if the Rajya Sabha keeps it for 15 days.

The Council also approved today the bound rate of 15% as peak rate for the proposed Cess to be levied on certain demerit goods. Explaining the same the GST Council Chairman, Mr Arun Jaitely, said that the actual rate would be a little less than the bound rate of Cess to be collected to fund the compensation to the States. The bound rate for aerated drinks and luxury car has been kept at 15% while the same will be 135% for the pan masala. For tobacco it is going to be 290 per cent or Rs 4170 per 1000 sticks. Is Cess going to be levied on bidis also? It is not very clear so far.

The Council also gave its nod for formation of a Committee to look into the issues of Meta Permit to be given for the movement of goods laden trucks in the GST regime. Since many Government Departments are generally involved in giving permit to trucks carrying goods across multiple States, there are many contentitious issues involved in it.

The Council is now scheduled to meet again on March 31 to approve the Rules for these laws and then the bucketing of the four slab rates.

Interestingly, off the floor of the proceedings, some officials were concerned about the retirement of the CBEC Chairman, Mr Najib Shah, on March 31 when the Council would be discussing the critical rules of CGST and IGST. At this juncture, a good number of them hoped that the PMO would prefer continuity in the CBEC leadership.

Given the fact that the Committee of Secretaries which met recently but could not arrive at any decision, the office of the Revenue Secretary may favour an extension to Mr Shah. If the Finance Minister is going to exercise his discretion it would be three months but if the Revenue Secretary is willing he may seek approval from the PMO and it could be six months. This appears to be a realistic scenario rapidly developing in the CBEC.