New Delhi: The GST Council has reconstituted the group of ministers (GoM), set up to look into integrated goods and services tax (IGST), with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman no longer the convener of the panel, according to an official notification.
Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Modi has been appointed the convenor of the panel, which has been set up to study the issue of integrated GST settlement.
The group of ministers was set up after concerns raised by Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Puducherry. It will examine the amount of integrated GST remaining unapportioned as on March 31, 2018.
The panel will submit its report to Sitharaman who also heads the GST Council.
According to the earlier notification, which had Sitharaman as the convenor of the panel, the group of ministers was to submit its findings to the GST Council.
As many as 52,720 Integrated GST (IGST) refund claims are pending for more than one year, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur informed Parliament.
Meanwhile, a Parliamentary panel on finance on Tuesday observed that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection has slowed down in recent months and asked the government to prevent misuse of input tax credit.
Two years after its launch, the government has begun the review of GST, including a possible resetting of rates along with the slabs, the Standing Committee on Finance headed by Jayant Sinha said in its report tabled in Parliament.
"In this connection, the committee are constrained to observe that GST collections have somewhat slowed down in recent months as compared to the target. The committee would therefore expect the government to resolve all the troubling issues related to GST at the earliest to achieve the desired revenue buoyancy," the panel said.
GST revenue collection crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark after a gap of three months in November, with the revenue growing by 6 per cent to Rs 1.03 lakh crore in the month. The collection stood at Rs 95,380 crore in October.
"The committee would also urge the Department of Revenue to remain vigilant so as to prevent misuse of provisions as input tax credit and enhance monitoring of overall compliance," the committee said.
It further asked the revenue department to have systematic reports and conduct feedback surveys from taxpayers to evaluate whether GST is operating smoothly.
