West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has been named the new chairman of the empowered committee of state Finance ministers that is working out the details of the proposed goods and services tax (GST). He will succeed Kerala Finance Minister KM Mani, who resigned in November over corruption charges.
Mitra, an economist who was secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry before joining politics in 2011 and becoming a minister in the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, was elected at a meeting of state finance ministers that was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said Mitra was elected head of the committee at the meeting on Friday.
Mitra didn't attend the meeting as he was unwell and was informed about the decision over the phone by Jaitley. The head of the panel has always been from an opposition partyruled state. CPI-M's Asim Dasgupta of West Bengal held the post when the United Progressive Alliance was in power and Sushil Modi from Bihar succeeded him. In July 2013, Jammu & Kashmir finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather was appointed chairman after Modi quit. Mani succeeded him in March last year. will replace multiple indirect taxes with one simple tax, creating a boundary-less national market that some estimate will lift India's GDP by as much as 2%.
"We are hopeful that GST will be passed in the budget session. We are getting support from all the states present here, all parties on GST," Sinha told reporters here. The budget session starts next week. The government's plan to roll out GST from April 1may be pushed to next year after the Congress party stalled proceedings in the Rajya Sabha.
Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 20th Februry 2016
Mitra of the state finance Ministery does not attend the meeting as he has been informed. The head of the panel has away from an opposition state.
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