Highlights of 8th GST Council Meeting dated 3-4 January, 2017

Looking for the updates of the 8th GST Council Meeting? Here are the most important ones-

The eighth meeting of the GST Council (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Council’) was held on 3 and 4 January 2017 Chaired by the Hon’ble Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley.

CESS on selected items:

States demanded to increase cess on more items such as luxury goods, aerated drinks, tobacco products and on high-end cars to compensate for the revenue loss of 900 billion. Accordingly, GST council had decided that the cess would be levied on a list of items mentioned by GST council and at the end of five years of GST the cess would be added to GST rates to divide it between the Centre and the states. The ultra-luxury goods and sin goods will have a GST cess for a period of 5 years. 

The major part of CESS will depend upon the current incidence of tax, if the clause of GST cess for 5 years raises any profit, then the council will decide on how to use these profits to compensate any other losses incurred by the State or Centre. Only the Clean Environment Cess will be retained and all the funds will be used to compensations.

Industry representation: 

The Government is deliberating all representation from Trade and Industry in the implementation of the GST bill. The Commerce and Industry sectors has given representation from officials to the GST council. The banking and insurance sector also has given representation to understand the impact of GST on products.

Dual Control issue:

In the 8th GSt Council meeting, the members again didn’t have any common agreement on the issue of dual control.

However, after the meeting was concluded, the Finance Minister Arun Jately said that the 1 April 2017 deadline for GST implementation looks improbable.