New Delhi: The next meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will be held on May 28. The meeting will be chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Taking to Twitter, the Union Finance Ministry officials said that the 43rd GST Council meeting will be held at 11 am on May 28.
The tweet also said that the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, Finance Ministers of States and Union Territories and senior officials from the Centre as well as States will attend the meeting.
“Smt @nsitharaman will chair the 43rd GST Council meeting via video conferencing at 11 AM in New Delhi on 28th May 2021. The meeting will be attended by MOS Shri @ianuragthakur besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs and Senior officers from Union Government & States,” said the tweet.
The announcement assumes significance against the backdrop of demands by various state governments urging the Centre to convene an urgent meeting of the GST Council to discuss issues related to reduction or waiver of GST on items used in Covid-19 treatment, Covid-19 vaccines and transfer of GST compensation to states among others.
The previous meeting of the GST Council was held on October 05, 2020.
Demands by various States
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin urged the government to bring the Goods and Services Tax for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs to zero level.
Pending GST compensation and subsidy on rice should be released immediately and adhoc grants-in-aid must be provided as the Centre has not shared with states the revenue from additional levies on fuel, he said in the letter to the Prime Minister on Thursday.
Early this month, Congress leader and Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal demanded a GST Council meeting immediately for serious mid-term corrections on tax issues, saying the federal body has not met for six months now.
In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said the GST Council has to meet to discuss key issues relating to taxation and GST rules being framed without states' assent.
Read More: Rahul Gandhi questions GST on Covid vaccines
Badal said some issues that require urgent discussion in the context of Covid-19 are whether GST be exempted on hand sanitisers, face masks, gloves, PPE kits, temperature-check equipment, oximetres, ventilators and the like.
"They (Central Government) have carried out substantive changes in the rules without consulting states and without taking state legislatures into account, due to which businessmen are being harrassed and intimidated," he alleged.
"We have voting rights, but the meetings are not happening," he said.
Echoing his views, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra urged the Union Finance Minister to convene a virtual meeting of the GST Council to discuss the 'alarming' shortfall in terms of compensation to states.
“The GST Council was mandated to meet once in every quarter. Unfortunately, that has been violated twice over, by not calling a meeting for two consecutive quarters -- not even virtually,” he said.
“This has undermined a federalist institution, where all states are represented irrespective of political parties, regions or sizes of population, along with the GoI, I fear that not holding meetings regularly may also lead to a trust deficit,” he added.
Opposition demands GST waiver on Covid vaccines, FM rules out
Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday virtually ruled out exempting Covid vaccines, medicines and oxygen concentrators from GST, saying such an exemption will make the lifesaving items costlier for consumers as manufacturers will not be able to offset the taxes paid on inputs.
Currently, domestic supplies and commercial imports of vaccines attract a 5 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST), while COVID drugs and oxygen concentrators attract a 12 per cent levy.
Congress working president Sonia Gandhi had last month demanded that all life-saving drugs, equipment and instruments required to treat Covid-19 patients must be exempted from GST.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also made a similar demand.
Currently, domestic supplies and commercial imports of vaccines attract 5 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST), while COVID drugs and oxygen concentrators attract 12 per cent levy.
The Centre had last fiscal year released Rs 70,000 crore to states on account of GST compensation. This is over and above the Rs 1.10 lakh crore released to states under the special borrowing mechanism to compensate them for shortfall in the GST collection this financial year.
As much as Rs 63,000 crore worth compensation is still due to be paid for 2020-21 fiscal year which ended March 31, 2021.
The impact of second wave of the pandemic on GST revenue is likely to be taken into account in the forthcoming GST Council meeting on May 28.
(With PTI Inputs)
Read More: GST exemption on COVID drugs will make them costlier: Nirmala Sitharaman
