New Delhi: It was decided in the 14th meeting of the GST Council held on 18-19 May in Srinagar that 18 sectoral groups would be constituted representing various sectors of the economy in order to ensure a smooth roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST). It was finally done today.
These 18 sectoral groups, representing various sectors of the economy, will ensure a smooth implementation of GST by timely responding to the issues and problems of their respective sectors.
These groups have the following mandate. They will interact and examine representations received from trade and industry associations/bodies of their respective sector. They will also highlight specific issues for the smooth transition of the respective sector to the GST regime. And they will prepare sector-specific draft guidances.
These sectoral working groups consist of senior officers from the Centre and the States.
The 18 sectoral groups along with the names of their co-convenors:
| S. No. | Sector | Central government | State government
|
| Name & designation | Name & designation | ||
| 1 | Banking, Financial & Insurance | Upender Gupta, Commissioner, GST Policy Wing, CBEC | Dhananjay Akhade, Jt. Commissioner, Maharashtra |
| 2 | Telecom | Amitabh Kumar, Jt. Secretary (TRU-II), CBEC | Mukesh Kumar Meshram, CCT, Uttar Pradesh |
| 3 | Exports (including EOUs and SEZs) | Tejpal Singh, ADG, DGEP, CBEC | Amitabh Jain, Principal Secretary, Chhattisgarh |
| 4. | IT & ITes | M Vinod Kumar, Chief Commissioner, CBEC | Smaraki Mahapatra, CCT, West Bengal |
| 5 | Transport & Logistics | JM Kennedy, ADG, DRI, CBEC | Sujatha Chaturvedi, Pr. Secretary, Bihar |
| 6 | Textiles | Yogendra Garg, Commissioner, CBEC | Mona Khandhar, Secretary (EA), Gujarat |
| 7 | MSMEs (incl. job work) | Manish Sinha, Commissioner, CBEC & GST Council | H Rajesh Prasad, Commissioner, VAT, Delhi |
| 8 | Oil & Gas (upstream & downstream) | PK Jain, Chief Commissioner, (AR), CBEC | Anurag Goel, CCT, Assam |
| 9 | Gems & Jewellery | Reyaz Ahmad, Director (TRU) | PD Vaghela, CCT, Gujarat |
| 10 | Services received and provided by Government | DP Nagendra Kumar, Pr. Commissioner, CBEC | Arun Mishra, Additional Secretary (CT) Bihar |
| 11 | Food Processing | Ajay Jain, Chief Commissioner, CBEC | Khalid Anwar, Sr Jt CCT, West Bengal |
| 12 | E-commerce | R Sriram, Commissioner, CBEC | Ritvik Pandey, CCT, Karnataka |
| 13 | Big Infra (Airport & Sea ports including Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul, Power Sector, Housing and Construction) | Sandeep Prakash, Commissioner, CBEC | J. Syamala Rao, CCT, Andhra Pradesh |
| 14 | Travel & Tourism | Sungita Sharma, Pr. Commissioner, CBEC | Raghwendra Kumar Singh, CCT, Madhya Pradesh (Indore) |
| 15 | Handicrafts | Pradeep Goel, Commissioner, CBEC | Ms. Sangeetha P. CCT, Chhattisgarh |
| 16 | Media & Entertainment | M. Srinivas, Commissioner, CBEC | Omnarayan Chainsukhji Bhangdiya, Addl. Commissioner, Sales Tax, Maharashtra, Pune |
| 17 | Drugs & Pharmaceuticals | A.R.S. Kumar, Commissioner, CBEC | Dr. M.P. Ravi Prasad, Joint CCT, Karnataka |
| 18 | Mining | S.N. Singh, Chief, Commissioner, CBEC | Praveen Gupta, Secretary (Finance), Rajasthan |
The officials of these sectoral groups will deal with the issues and the problems of the respective sectors they represent. Industry groups or associations concerned or even individual industry representatives may approach the respective sectoral group officers with their problems, if any, relating to GST implementation. The latter, in turn, will try to guide and help them in resolving the same. This exercise will help in dealing with most of the sectoral problems and issues at the local or regional level.
The fundamental issue here is whether these bureaucrats have an incentive to push the economy ahead, or they will cynically turn anti-industry, disapproving of constructive suggestions from businessmen. These sanctioning authorities may also turn extortionists.
Jaitley will chair the 16th meeting of the GST Council on Sunday, 11 June at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. The finance ministers of different States and Union Territories (having elected assembly) will attend the one-day meeting. They are members of the council.
The main agenda items of this meeting include confirmation of the minutes of the 15th GST Council meeting held on 3 June, approval of amendments to draft GST rules and rate adjustment, if any, based on the representations received from different trade and industry and their associations. This meeting will be important in the sense that the GST law is going to be rolled-out with effect from 1 July.
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