FM Sitharaman likely to chair GST council meet at Sgr on June 28-29
On her second visit to Jammu and Kashmir in the past seven months, the Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be chairing the GST Council meet on June 28 and 29 in Srinagar. Sitharaman’s tour will also be part of BJP’s outreach programme- consisting of visits by the union ministers to J&K. The Union Finance minister will also be interacting with common people on her two day visit, hold discussions with the administration and assess development work in the areas assigned to them. She is also likely to inaugurate development programmes in Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier union minister Prahlad Patel visited J&K and at present union defense minister Rajnath Singh is touring J&K. Over 25 Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Sarbananda Sonewal and Prahlad Patel will also pay a visit in June and July. BJP began the outreach programme in J&K after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in 2019. In 2020, 36 Union Ministers visited the UT, while the next year, 70 Ministers visited J&K to review the security and development status of the region.
Sitharaman earlier visited J&K in November last year, where she inaugurated projects worth Rs.165 crore-pertaining to health, education, urban infrastructure and disaster management. She also laid the foundation stone for the Union Territory (UT) Level Emergency Operation Centre and SCADA control building at Budgam, Kashmir (worth Rs.34.88 crore) under the World Bank-funded Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project (JTFRP).
Meanwhile, the key GST Council had last year set up a seven-member panel of state ministers, headed by Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, to suggest ways to augment revenue by rationalizing tax rates.
The key GST Council meeting will discuss GST rate rationalization, as a panel of state ministers on GST rate rationalization on Friday failed to reach a consensus as some members opposed changes to tax slabs and rates, sources said.
The Group of Ministers will, however, present a status report to the GST Council on the consensus which was arrived at the previous meeting of the GoM on November 20, 2021, they added. The GoM will seek an extension to submit its final report, they said, adding issues of tax rates will also be raised in the upcoming Council meeting.
The GoM has been mandated to review items under inverted duty structure to help minimize refund payout, and review the GST exempt list with an objective to expand the tax base and eliminate breaking of input tax credit (ITC) chain.
Under GST, a four-tier structure exempts or imposes a low rate of tax 5 per cent on essential items and levies the top rate of 28 per cent on cars and demerit goods. The other slabs of tax are 12 and 18 per cent. Besides, a cess is imposed on the highest slab of 28 per cent on luxury, demerit and sin goods.
