With the issue over division of the 10 million indirect tax assessee base between the Centre and states for administrative purposes looking intractable even at the end of the eighth session of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council here on Tuesday, the proposed epochal tax reform, which has been on the anvil for over a decade now, will most likely be delayed to June-July 2017 or later. While this and the differences over the size of the compensation for states and the administration of integrated GST (IGST) reflected how demonetisation has rapidly dispelled the initial Centre-state bonhomie at the council, the heightened uncertainty has made the Centre’s task of making the estimates for the Union Budget 2017-18 even more daunting.
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said that with the council approving the 11-chapter draft integrated GST law except one section, the two key unresolved issues related to “cross-empowerment” and definition of “territory” for the purpose of taxation powers. Terming both “complex issues”, he explained that under the Constitution, territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles into the sea are in the Union territory, although coastal states enjoyed “fishing rights” in these areas and they have also been levying sales tax/VAT on high-sea transactions. Saying this was not a political issue, the minister said a constitutionally and legally tenable solution to it would be found soon. The council will meet next on January 16 to discuss the two issues.
