EMN
DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 20
PARLIAMENTARY Secretary for Information Technology Tovihoto Ayemi addressed the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers Meeting in Shillong in Meghalaya on November 18th and the 19th in Pinewood Hotel hosted by the Government of Meghalaya. The meeting was attended by finance ministers and parliamentary secretaries of finance, excise and taxes of the country.In his speech, the Member of Legislative Assembly from Nagaland said the state is “satisfied that the draft Constitutional Amendment Bill on Goods & Service tax (GST) has made special provisions for the North Eastern states and Jammu & Kashmir. “But while framing the details of these special provisions, attention must be given to the unique requirements of the individual states,” he said. The politician suggested that a special meeting should be convened for the states with special provisions so that the common issues could be discussed in detail.
According to the parliamentary secretary, Nagaland had raised the issue of GST compensation which has been pending for many years. “The Government of India was requested to release the GST compensation claims at the earliest for the state of Nagaland and other small states since the amount was not large, which would help the states and also create an atmosphere of trust with the states,” he said.
The Nagaland leader also raised the issue of dual control by the centre and states in the GST regime. He said small traders and small scale industries should be kept out for the reason that many dealers in small states such as Nagaland fall under ‘the small category.’ Dual control would make compliance difficult for the small dealers, he said. The threshold for Central GST for goods should be kept at not less than Rs. 1.5 crores and the threshold for services should also be appropriately high, the parliamentary secretary told the meeting.
On the issue of threshold in the GST regime, it was mentioned that for a small state like Nagaland and other small states of the North East, a lower threshold like in the case of VAT is more desirable.
A major issue raised was regarding the protection of revenue of the state. The centre must give firm assurance that 100% compensation must be given to states that suffer revenue loss with the introduction of GST, at least during the initial implementation period. For this purpose, the state reiterated for the creation of a GST Compensation Fund or a similar mechanism.
The state supports an early consensus on this long standing issue and transition to the GST regime but keeping in mind the special requirements of the small North Eastern states.
