PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant may have headed the government and concurrently been the State's finance minister for five long years but he will only make his maiden attendance at the national GST council meeting later this weekend.
Earlier, this responsibility on behalf of the State as a permanent member of the GST council was shouldered by Industries Minister Mauvin Godinho ever since former chief minister Manohar Parrikar had fallen ill in 2018 but now he has been reileved of the responsibility and Sawant will henceforth attend the GST council meetings.
Now, as Sawant prepares to attend the meet to be held on Saturday, he has received a number of inputs from Goa's apex industry body -- the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) -- including a demand from the State's bustling tourism sector for standardisation of the GST to a single 12% rate for all hotel accommodation and the option for restaurants to charge 12% GST with input tax credit benefit for restaurants.
The GCCI has also submitted some macro changes for the long-term in the GST regime, including minimising the multiple GST tax rates to avoid classification disputes.
Incentivising genuine and compliant GST tax payers, providing option to revise GST returns and redesign of the GST Annual Returns and reconciliation are some of the other recommendations made by the GCCI in its dossier presented to Sawant.
