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After a gap of nearly four months, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout efforts are set to be revived.
The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers is scheduled to meet on Monday to choose a new chairman in place of Dr Asim Dasgupta, following the Left Front's defeat in the elections to the West Bengal Assembly.
The frontrunner to replace the suave and articulate MIT alumnus is Kerala's Finance Minister Mr K.M. Mani, who has already made public his interest in the post. Also in the fray is the Orissa Finance Minister Mr Prafulla Chandra Ghadei.
The man who defeated Dr Dasgupta at the polls and has since taken over as West Bengal Finance Minister, Dr Amit Mitra — who was formerly Secretary-General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry — is apparently not in the race, sources in the know told Business Line .
The recent Assembly polls in five States — Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry — had disrupted the working of the Empowered Committee given the task of building consensus for this major indirect tax reform and facilitate constitutional amendment for the introduction of dual GST.
A constitutional amendment Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in the Budget session of Parliament this year. This Bill went to the Standing Committee of Finance, which has sought stakeholder comments.
The proposed dual-GST is expected to subsume most of the indirect taxes such as excise duty and service tax at the central level, and value added tax (VAT) and other local levies such as octroi, electricity duty at the State level.
The dual GST implementation had been stuck on several fronts although both the Centre and the States are striving hard to introduce it.
Apprehensions of the States over loss of fiscal autonomy have, to some extent, delayed the whole process, according to economy observers.
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