Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather has been elected Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST, which is engaged in building consensus on the new indirect tax regime.
“We will try to achieve consensus on the Constitutional Amendment Bill and the GST law as soon as possible,” Rather told reporters here today after being unanimously elected as the new chairman of the empowered committee. His name was proposed by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Rather, a senior National Conference leader, also said that he would ensure that concerns of states with regard to compensation are addressed before the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will subsume several indirect taxes, including central excise, service tax and local levies.
The post of Chairman of the FM's committee on GST fell vacant on June 17 when Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi resigned following JD(U)-BJP split in the eastern state. After meeting the state FMs, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters that “we are moving forward” with the implementation of GST. Chidambaram further said the Centre is awaiting the opinion of the law ministry on whether to introduce changes in the Constitutional Amendment Bill or to withdraw it and introduce a new one in line with the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee which had last week finalised its report on Bill.