Clearing decks for the implementation of the goods and services tax from July 1, the GST Council on Saturday approved the draft compensation law to reimburse revenue loss to States.
“The legally vetted draft of GST Compensation Law was approved by the GST Council. It will be taken up in Parliament in the second half of the Budget Session,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after the meeting of the Council in Udaipur.
Jaitley, who chairs the Council that includes State Ministers as members, said that the next meeting of the Council will be held on March 4 and 5 when it will approve the draft model laws for Centre, States and Integrated GST.
He highlighted the need to pass the four enabling legislations in the second half of the Budget Session to ensure the timely roll out of GST.
Apart from the draft legislations, the fitment of commodities in the rate slabs also has to be decided.
“One major meeting of the GST Council is required to approve putting goods and services in different tax slabs,” Jaitley said.
The Council has already approved a four tier rate structure for GST, which includes slabs of five per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent.