Source: www.net4ca.com

Parliament’s standing committee on finance might propose making it optional for states to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The panel, which met today to consider its draft report on the Constitution (115th Amendment) Bill on the GST, feels states should be given enough fiscal space if the success of Value Added Tax (VAT) is to be replicated. In its Bhubaneswar meeting in January, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers suggested states get the option to stay out of GST at the time of its rollout or quit later if needed.The argument given by then EC Chairman Sushil Modi (he was finance minister of Bihar) was that once GST was rolled out, states would not find it sensible to stay out of it and quitting later won’t be easy either. VAT was also optional for states at the time of its introduction but gradually all states adopted it.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/parl-panel-may-propose-making-gst-optional-for-states-113062800775_1.html