Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council

Goods and Services Tax

What is GST?

We have commonly heard the word GST which stands for Goods and Services Tax. Before acquainting ourselves with the GST Council, let us understand what GST stands for.

• The Indian Taxation System, previously used to take into consideration a varsity of taxes (Manufacturing or Central Excise Duty, Service Tax, interstate trading tax or the CST, Retail Sale Tax or the VAT, Entry of goods in a particular state tax et cetera),
• This provision was a cascading setup and settled over intricacies due to the availability of the same taxes for the Central and State Governments,
• To overcome this complexities, and to subsume all the aforementioned taxes, a new form of Taxation System of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced. 

Brief History of GST

The history of the simulation, fiscal formulation, framework synthesis as well as implementation has taken a due course of years.

• During the 2000s, under the governance of our Late Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the concept of GST was introduced. The same year, a committee was setup to formulate a plan for the country.
• In 2003, a taskforce on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management under the Centre was created which recommended the implementation of the then GST Model in 2004.
• Former Union Finance Minister, in the Budget speech of 2006-07 proposed a movement towards the articulation of GST. He proposed the introduction of the same into execution, 1^st April 2020 onwards.
• Thereby, to fulfill the purposes of reducing intricacies and cascading systems, the Government of India, put the Goods and Services Taxation System in play (with due effect) from 1^st July, 2007.

Now, let us come back to the centric and thematic topic, of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) Council

What is the GST Council?

• The Goods and Services Tax Council is the chief decision making authority and a constitutional body, to deal with matters with respect to all domains linked with GST Systems.
• This council is also the pivotal authority to amend, modify, reconcile or procure intricacies and/or rules with regards to the GST Systems.
• The GST Council will practice decision making authority in matters of taxation rates, tax exemptions, regarded laws and recommendations, due dates of certain forms et cetera. However, all these decisions shall be announced with respect to the special rates and/or provisions granted to some states.
• In accordance with the Article 279A of the Indian Constitution (Amended), the GST Council will be a joint forum of the governmental setups at the union and the state levels.

How is the GST Council structured?

• The Chairperson of the same will be the serving Union Finance Minister.
• The Union Minister of State will also be in charge of the Revenues and Finances.
• The specific nominations of the Minister in charge of Finance and Taxation by the State Governments will also be the Members of the same.

GST Council Recommendations

The GST Council, as per the Article 297A(4) of the Indian Constitution (Amended) can and/or is supposed to make recommendations to the Union and State Governments in the respective matters concerning GST. The following pointers are the domains of recommendations’ operation:

• Limits of thresholding,
• Regions of Supply,
• Rates of the GST on various goods and services,
• Special GST rates for resource raising during natural disasters,
• Or the special GST rates for certain state centric regions.

 Other Salient Features of the GST Council

• The GST Council’s office is placed in the country’s national capital, i.e. New Delhi,
• The Ex-officio Secretary to the GST Council is a Revenue Secretary,
• GST Council also has a permanent invitee (non-voting member) to all the council meetings, i.e., the Central Board of Excise and Customs or the CBEC,
• This Council meetings are funded by the Union Cabinet in their entirety,
• The Council releases all its meeting highlights here,
• The council plans to set up an anti-profiteering screening committee in order to strengthen the National Anti-Profiteering Authority under the GST mandate and/or legislation.

At all, the GST Council plays an extremely pivotal, accountable, and an authoritative role in the foreplay of the Indian Taxation System. Its strengthened structural formations are yet again a piece of crucial subject to the entire nation, when it comes to fiscal ties.