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A new chairman for the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers will be announced soon, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday.
The committee is discussing modalities for the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST), which the Centre intends to introduce from April 1, 2016.
Jaitley, who met the committee on Friday, said an additional meeting will be required to elect the new chairman.
“As the Budget session is on in a number of States, some of their representatives could not make it. We need to consult them also. After consensus, we will have a new chairman of the empowered committee in the next few days,” he told reporters after the meeting.
The need for a new head arises as Abdul Rahim Rather, former finance minister of Jammu & Kashmir, and previous chairman of the panel, lost the Assembly elections and ceased to be the chairman.
Former West Bengal finance minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Asim Dasgupta was the committee’s first chairman, followed by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sushil Kumar Modi. Rather had replaced Modi in 2013.
The Committee is discussing the Constitutional Amendment Bill for introduction of GST. Jaitley said the Bill will be brought for consideration and passage during the second half of the budget session scheduled to begin on April 20.
“I hope the Constitutional Amendment Bill, which has already been cleared by the Standing Committee, will be considered by Parliament in the second part of the (Budget) session,” he said. Three major pieces of legislation — Insurance, Coal and Mines Bill — will boost investment coming into the country, he had said earlier.
The Rajya Sabha passed Coal and Mines Bill on Friday, while Insurance Bill was cleared last week. With this, both Houses have approved the Bills.
“There will now be a lot (of) investment coming into the insurance sector. There will now be a completely non-discriminatory allocation of coal and mining blocks. The mines and coal bearing States will get the revenue that they need because the entire money is being transferred to them,” he said.
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