• 17 Nov 2022 06:09 PM
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Amit Mitra presses for a meeting of GST Council

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NEW DELHI : West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s principal chief adviser and former member of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, Amit Mitra, on Wednesday urged Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to hold the meeting of the council and decide on outstanding tax policy issues on a consensus basis.

NEW DELHI : West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's principal chief adviser and former member of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, Amit Mitra, on Wednesday urged Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to hold the meeting of the council and decide on outstanding tax policy issues on a consensus basis.

GST Council has not met in over four months though it is supposed to be meeting once every quarter, Mitra said in a letter to Sitharaman. He pointed out that the procedures of the GST Council mandate holding a meeting at least once every quarter.

Mitra also pointed out that outcome of two ministerial groups formed last year still awaits finality, with only an interim report submitted by one of them. Last year, the GST Council set up a ministerial panel to look into tax rate rationalisation and another to study taxation of casinos, race courses and online gaming. Mitra appealed to Sitharaman to bring finality to the matters pending before the ministerial groups through consensus.

He appealed to Sitharaman to recognize the work being done by the states when GST revenue collection enhancement is spoken about, honouring the true spirit of federalism.

An email sent to the spokesperson for the Union finance ministry on Wednesday remained unanswered at the time of publishing.