GST Council New panel: calamity tax

The GST Council on Friday decided to set up a seven-member ministerial panel to examine the legality of imposing a new tax on certain goods and services to raise resources for natural calamity-hit states like Kerala.

Mr Jaitley said that Kerala’s demand to allow imposition of higher taxes on goods and services within the state to help tide over the losses suffered due to flood was considered by the Council and it was decided that the matter should be referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM), which would include representatives from North-eastern, hilly and coastal states.

The GoM will also look into whether the disaster response fund mechanism is sufficient to deal with calamities and also define circumstances where the ‘calamity tax’ can be imposed.