43rd GST Council meeting begins via video conferencing

The 43rd Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting on Friday started via video conferencing under the chair of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

According to the official Twitter account of the Ministry of Finance, the meeting is attended by the Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur along with Finance Ministers and senior officials of States and Union Territories (UT).

"Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chairing the 43rd GST Council meeting via video conferencing in New Delhi today. MOS Shri Anurag Thakur, Finance Ministers of States and UTs and Senior officers from Union Government and States are also present in the meeting," the Ministry of Finance tweeted.

On October 5, 2020, the GST Council at its 42nd meeting had decided to extend the levy of compensation cess beyond the transition period of five years for such period as may be required to meet the revenue gap.

The Centre, on the request of states, also decided to increase the shortfall amount to Rs 1.10 lakh crores from Rs 97,000 crores under the borrowing option.

Sitharaman had said 21 states have chosen borrowing option 1 for compensation of revenue shortfall due to GST implementation. She had clarified that the Centre is not denying compensation to any state but those which have not chosen any borrowing option have to borrow from the market.

GST Council is the apex body that takes decisions regarding issues of threshold limit for applicability of the tax as well as the limit for dual control between Centre and States.