GST Council's Guwahati meet key as it will review GST regime: Assam Minister

Guwahati, Nov 6 : The forthcoming meeting of the GST council meeting scheduled to be held here on Friday is extremely important as it will review the new tax regime, introduced in July this year, said Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Addressing a press conference here, he said a meeting of Finance Department officials from around the country will be held on Thursday, ahead of the GST Council meeting which will be chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday.

"The meeting assumes significance for several reasons. First it will be the first review of the three months of implementation of the new tax regime. Several committees like the composition committee, the rationalization of rates committee and the GST network committee will submit their reports in the meeting and it will be discussed," Sarma said.

"A total of 24 states have confirmed their participation in the Guwahati meeting of the GST Council. While the Finance Ministers of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh cannot come due to elections in the state, we are yet to get confirmation from states of Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura," he said.

The Chief Ministers of Bihar and Manipur will represent their states, he said adding that Puducherry will also be represented by its Chief Minister.

"There will be around 200 dignitaries visiting the state on Thursday and Friday including the ministers and top bureaucrats from all these states. We are also going to organize visits of these VVIPS to Kamakhya temple and the Kaziranga national park depending on their preferences and likes," said the Minister while adding that the state machinery is fully geared up to host the prestigious event.

Asked about the performance of Assam, the Minister said that its growth is encouraging as the state's revenue rose from Rs 330 crore in August to Rs 486 crore in October this year.