India's Goods and Services Tax Council has fixed the turnover-based exemption limit from such levies at Rs 2000,000, leaving the decision on fixing the actual tax rates and the finalisation of draft rules for later. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressed the media after the two day maiden meeting of the apex decision-making body on the new indirect tax regime. He said the council also decided that exemption for assessees in the northeastern region and hill states will be Rs 1000,000.
"We have also decided that the compensation should be given at regular intervals to states," he said. Jaitley, who is also Chairman of the Council, said the jurisdiction over assessees with a turnover of £150,000 and below will solely be with the states and for those above, it will be jointly with the central and state governments. "All existing cesses will be subsumed in GST. We will try to finalise the rates and the slabs during our meeting on October 17, 18, and 19," Jaitley said. He added, "Starting from September 22, we have roughly two months time till November 22 to resolve all the outstanding issues. Therefore, a draft timetable has been given, which also have been adopted."
The central government intends to resolve all outstanding issues over the uniform pan-India indirect tax regime at the earliest to meet the deadline for its implementation, from April 1, next year. Jaitley had also said the target roll-out of GST would depend on the passage of the Central GST and the Integrated GST (IGST) bills in Parliament and adoption of respective State GST bills by each state.
