Jaitley to meet state FMs today on GST road map

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet his state counterparts on Wednesday to discuss the roadmap for rolling out Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 2016.

Jaitley would chair a meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers. Later, the state ministers will discuss amongst themselves various issues relating to the implementation of the new indirect regime, sources said. The government plans to get the Constitutional Amendment Bill on GST passed in the ongoing session of Parliament. 

The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in December. The Centre is working towards addressing concerns of all states for rolling out the GST on the scheduled date. Certain states have argued that the implementation of GST would be beneficial for consuming states, while for their manufacturing counterparts like Maharashtra and Gujarat it could be a challenge.