GST: Centre, states agree on timetable for April 1 roll out

 Moving towards rolling out GST from April 1, Centre and states on Thursday agreed on a timetable for deciding on the tax rate and completion of legislative work but differences remained on the turnover limit for exemption from the new tax.

The first meeting of the newly constituted GST Council saw states like Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh demanding a larger say than one-state-one-vote principle that puts a smaller state on equal footing with a large manufacturing one.

While their demand was overruled, consensus also eluded first day of the meeting over the issue of exemption to dealers from the Goods and Services Tax (GST). 

While some states demanded traders with turnover of Rs 10 lakh or less be exempted, a large number, including Delhi, were in favour of the limit being fixed at Rs 25 lakh in a year.

With tax collected from traders being just 2 per cent of the total tax collection, majority view was in favour of a higher exemption limit.