Bad news for India Inc. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the house panel on finance, headed BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, may not endorse the present Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill.
The panel has expressed strong reservations on key issues of the bill. It has asked for full clarity on the GST structure.
The discussion on the bill has been on since March 2011. The latest developments will that the bill will be sent back to the LS speaker by the house panel.
But it is not only the house panel that has doubts about the present format of the bill. Sushil Modi, who heads the state finance ministers’ empowered committee, which has been discussing GST for a lot of time, seems to be having a rethink on the model that India proposes to introduce after trips to various countries including Canada.
The current draft bill proposes the dual structure. Some members in the state FM’s committee now veering around to having a simple, single rate, single architecture GST for the entire country.
Separately, after Chidambaram took over the finance ministry, he himself has been going through the nitty-gritty and there are two expert panels that he had set up whose reports have been sought. Sources say those reports might have been submitted yesterday or are to be submitted shortly.
All of this, in effect will mean that the GST model as proposed will have to be significantly redrafted and the house panel is now looking at a timeline of August 31 this year.