J&K’s summer capital Srinagar will host finance ministers of all states for a crucial meeting of the Goods and Services Tax Council on May 18 and 19.

The state administration is gearing up for the meeting in a big way. The General Administration Department on Monday appointed 69 KAS officers as liaison officers for the meeting.

They include four special secretaries, 10 additional secretaries, 15 deputy secretaries and 40 under secretaries.

Also, the government issued an order saying the vehicles, which had been drawn from different departments in connection with the North Zone Regional Conference, would be retained till May 20 for the GST Council meeting’s transport needs.

The Council is headed by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and comprises finance ministers of all states and Union Territories.

"It is a big event. We are expecting more than 150 dignitaries including the ministers and officials," said an official in the Finance department.

Chief Economic Adviser to the government of India, chairman Central Board of Excise and Customs, and other officials from the Union finance ministry would be attending the meeting.

"Finance secretaries and commissioners Commercial Taxes of all the states are also expected to be in Srinagar," the official said.

He said the meeting is important as "it would decide which commodity would fall in which tax bracket".

Interestingly, J&K is yet to take a final call on whether it would be part of the GST regime.

Finance minister Dr Haseeb Drabu had last year said that GST will not to apply to Jammu and Kashmir in its current shape.

Drabu had said the government will come out with a separate proposal on how to participate in the GST framework without compromising the state’s constitutional position on taxing services.

 16 May 2017, 02:00 PM