GST likely to be rolled-out by July 1: Jaitley

He said the power to levy and collect the GST would lie with the Centre but a special provision has been made to empower states in the matter.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said July 1 would be the most likely date to roll out the Goods and Services Tax. He said the power to levy and collect the GST would lie with the Centre but a special provision has been made to empower states in the matter.

The all-powerful GST Council, headed by Jaitley, met for the ninth time on Monday to discuss the issue of who gets to administer the GST, which has emerged as the single biggest issue in its roll-out.

The council has been deadlocked in the last four meetings with states seeking sole powers to control assessee with annual turnover of up to Rs 1.5 crore. The previous meeting was held on January 4.

The Centre, however, is not in favour of a horizontal split as it feels states do not have the expertise to administer levies like service tax. Jaitley is also not in favour of dual agencies auditing and scrutinising each taxpayer as he reckons multiple authorities could end up acting at cross-purposes.

Jaitley had last week hoped to resolve the pending issues to get the new indirect tax regime rolling from April 1.

OneIndia News