GST rollout as planned: Arun Jaitley

At the 17th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting on Sunday, the Council has decided to relax the deadline for filing returns for the first two months after the rollout. Touted as the biggest of such reforms in India, the new GST regime will be launched at midnight on June 30 at a function in Delhi. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that there was “luxury of time to defer the implementation” of GST at the Council meeting.

Jaitley said that the relaxation in deadline is “to obviate any grievance or any lack of preparedness” of tax assessees, and that implementation will be more strict from September. The deadline relaxation was welcomed by tax analysts, who also noted that this was no time for complacency as only two and half months are available. E-will bill rules and some business-related problems are still being deliberated by the Council.