GST Roll Out on July: Council approves Rules

The Fifteenth Meeting of the GST Council held at New Delhi cleared the pending rules, including transition provisions and returns. In the meeting chaired by Finance Minister Jaitley, all the states agreeing to July 1 roll out of the Goods and Services Tax.

“We were discussing the rules and (they) have been completed. Transition rules have been cleared and everybody has agreed for July 1 roll out,” said, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac.

In the last meeting held at Sri Nagar, the Council had fitted over 1,200 goods and 500 services in the tax brackets of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent.

The 15th meeting of the GST Council was scheduled to decide on tax rate of 6 items including gold, textiles and footwear.

As for the transition rules approved by Council, the industry had been demanding some relaxation of the provision of deemed credit. Under the draft transition law, after the implementation of GST, a company can claim credit of up to 40 per cent of their Central GST dues for excise duty paid on stock held by businesses prior to the rollout. Several dealers are choosing to wait and watch rather than buy and hold on to inventories. They have lobbied with the government seeking an increase in the credit limit.

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