By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 11, 2016: IN a rapid-fire development the Union Ministry of Finance has notified the provisions relating to constitution of the much-awaited GST Council with effect from Monday. The notification issued yesterday brings into force Section 12 of the Constitution Act, 2016 which means the clock for maximum period of 60 days allowed for notifying the GST Counil will start ticking from Monday. As per the provisions, the President of India will notify the constitution of the GST Counil within 60 days from the date on which the provisions of the Act come into froce.

This is the second speedy development after the President of India granted his assent to the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill on September 8, 2016.

These quick initiatives need to be seen and analysed in the background of what the Union Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, said the other day in the context of GST roll-out from April 1, 2017 - "We are running against time."

Senior officials in the MoF say that the Centre is too keen to give a serious TRY to meet the April 1 deadline but a lot would depend on other federal partners. Whether States are also equally comfortable with this deadline or only the Centre wants to pull it off.

Going by the ground realities, it may be noted that a good number of States are yet to ratify the GST Bill. Although their ratification after a couple of weeks may be a significant event of irrelevance but from the GST Council's perspective it is important to take them on board to pursue the politics of consensus democracy.

Now that the provisions relating to GST Council will officially come into force from Monday, what it immediately needs are an independent building on loan basis (may build and own its own building later); a Secretary General, some Joint Secretaries, Directors, Under Secretaries, Technical Officers and other support staff. TIOL has come to know that Dr Hasmukh Adhia himself has expedited the work on this front and has begun to interact with officers willing to 'shift' to a new ship.

Since GST Council would require its own sets of rules and procedures to conduct its business, the Centre badly needs to stitch together a working team which can do the necessary work, including the polishing of some rudimentary works done so far. For the first meeting of the GST Council to happen, all these rules have to be put in place at the earliest.

(See MoF Notification notifying provisions relating to GST Council)