Hyderabad: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) will organise a conclave with ministers from four south Indian states to deliberate over the tax-sharing formula with regard to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other major issues in a virtual event that will be documented as a report.
On Monday, FICCI in a press release announced that it will host the inaugural ‘South India GST Conclave’, an online interaction with the ministers of four southern states on September 29.
The one-day virtual event will host ministers from four states including Karnataka industry minister Murugesh R. Nirani, Kerala finance minister K. N. Balagopal, Tamil Nadu finance minister P. Thiagarajan, and Telangana finance minister T. Harish Rao. The event is scheduled to be held between 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The participating ministers are expected to discuss issues related to tax-sharing among other challenges faced by South Indian states since the implementation of the GST system. As the Centre’s GST council was formed in 2017, and the GST law was passed in the same year, there were certain challenges with regards to central and state tax sharing plans, said a press release from FICCI on Monday.
It stated that the 15th Finance Commission left the central and state tax sharing percentage virtually unchanged, which benefits the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, and Bihar, while the aforementioned South Indian states have a number of concerns to ponder about.
The finance ministers have a great role to play with the GST Council. A major shift that happened in the GST regime is that all taxes are based on consumption not on the production basis due to which many of the southern states have lost heavily, the release added. Hence, the conclave is slated to be held with these issues in the background.