Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to meet state finance ministers on GST roadmap

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet state finance ministers to discuss the road map for rolling out Goods and Services Tax ( GST) from April 2016. A constitutional amendment bill to facilitate this levy is likely to be taken up by the parliament in the ongoing session.

The government expects the bill to be passed as most states are now on board. The government has assured states that any revenue loss to them will be adequately compensated.

Anew revenue neutral rate, the rate at which both states and centre do not make a loss when GST is rolled out, also needs to be fixed. It is likely to come below the 26-27 per cent seen earlier because alcohol and tobacco have been kept out.

The Centre will collect excise on these while states will levy VAT and to that extent the revenue neutral rate will be lower.