The revised draft of the Constitution Amendment Bill on GST will drop the contentious issue of giving veto powers to the Union Finance Minister in order to bring states on board. However, the Union Finance Minister will remain the chairman of the council, which will take decisions on the indirect tax system.
With states rejecting the earlier draft on the ground that giving veto powers to the Union Finance Minister would interfere with their fiscal autonomy on indirect taxes, the new draft of the Bill proposes that all states, along with the Centre, would have to agree on a decision in the GST council to make it effective.
Also, states will be given deputy chairmanship of the council on a rotational basis, a key official source told PTI.
We are happy to note that some sensible consensus have arrived between states and center on GST implementation an governance