GSTN to be made a government body: GST Council

The 27th meeting of the GST Council has approved that the GSTN will be converted into a government holding. Elaborating on the decision, the GST Council chairman, finance minister Arun Jaitley, said that the govt will acquire the 51% stake held by private entities and subsequently the central and the state governments will hold a 50% stake each in the entity.

On the issue of imposition of cess on sugar, the finance minister said that the GST Council took note of the prevailing distress in the sector where the farmers are facing a tough situation as the cost of sugar is more than its market price. The Council decided to constitute a committee of ministers who will consider the circumstances under which a commodities cost is more than its price and put forward its recommendations.

Another agenda before the Council was rolling out some form of incentives to those who make digital payments. The Council had two viewpoints on this, Arun Jaitley said. Although, the majority view favoured the proposal but some were in favour of having a negative list of items on which the incentives will not be allowed, Jaitley added.


The Council decided to constitute another committee of ministers of state who will consider all the view points and including the desirability of having a negative list of items on which the incentives will not be applicable, Jaitley said.