Sitharaman to chair 43rd GST Council meeting on May 28

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the 43rd Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting through video conferencing on May 28.

The official Twitter account of Nirmala Sitharaman's Office informed that the meeting will take place at 11 am and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur along with Finance Ministers and senior officials of all states and Union Territories (UT) will participate.

"Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the 43rd GST Council meeting via video conferencing at 11 AM in New Delhi on 28 May 2021. The meeting will be attended by MOS Anurag Thakur besides Finance Ministers of States and UTs and senior officers from Union Government and States," office of the Finance Minister 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 said 21 states have chosen borrowing option 1 for compensation of revenue shortfall due to GST implementation.

She 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.