NEW DELHI, March 21 - No exemption has been provided to the north-eastern and other hilly states under the GST, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla has clarified.
The GST Council, in a meeting held on September 30, 2016, had decided that all entities exempted from payment of indirect tax under the then existing tax incentive scheme should pay tax under the GST regime. It was also decided that the decision to continue with any incentive given to specific industries in the existing industrial policies of the states or through any schemes of the Central Government, should be with the state concerned or the Central Government and in case the state or the Central Government decides to continue any existing exemption scheme, then it should be administered by way of a reimbursement mechanism through the budgetary route, the modalities for which shall be worked out by the state government concerned and the Centre.
The Central Government, with effect from July 1, 2017, notified a scheme for grant of budgetary support to eligible units which were availing of exemption or refund benefit, for the residual period of exemption under the erstwhile Central Excise regime. The support under the scheme will be equal to the share of the Central Government of the CGST and IGST paid by the unit after utilisation of credit of the Central and Integrated Tax, said the minister.
