Sushil urges Amit to postpone GST meet

Kolkata: Member of the Empowered Committee of state Finance ministers and Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday said that he has written a letter to Bengal Finance and Industry minister Amit Mitra, urging him to postpone the upcoming meeting for discussion about state revenue resources outside Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other issues. Mitra is the chairman of the Empowered Committee.

"The Empowered Committee has neither been assigned new functions nor has a fresh mandate been given to it. Accordingly, I have requested him to kindly postpone the meeting proposed to be held on December 14," he told reporters here after an interactive session organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

Modi further said that the proposed meeting, scheduled on December 14, is supposed to consider the committee's annual report and statement of accounts. According to the letter, the committee is expected to discuss about state revenue resources and best practices with respect to resources outside GST, scope of tax powers of the states and issues related to the 15th Finance Commission.

He said all the aims and objectives of the committee revolve around implementation of VAT (value added tax) instead of the sales taxes prevailing in the states and charting a roadmap for introduction of GST.

With the replacement of VAT or Union excise duties or service taxes with GST, the Empowered Committee has completed the task assigned to it, he said in the letter sent to Mitra. "It is important to note that most of the major indirect taxes are already subsumed in GST. Taxes on fuel are moving towards sub-summation in GST and the methodology of extending GST to fuels can and should be discussed in the GST council," the BJP leader said in the letter.

He had further stated that the Empowered Committee does not have a mandate to discuss issues like state revenue positions and best practices with respect to resources outside GST, taxing powers of the states or Centrally sponsored schemes, grants and devolution.