GST council which concluded its two-day meeting decided threshold

New Delhi: The two- day meeting of the national goods and services tax council which ended on Friday decided that companies with annual turn-over below Rs 20 lakhs will be out of the Goods and Services (GST) tax net.

For the north- eastern states the thresh –hold limit is Rs ten lakhs. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made announcement to this effect here after the meeting. This fulfils the demand of north-eastern states including Assam where the ruling BJP has tested power for the first time.

Bihar and Bengal had also made the same demand but it was not accepted by the council.

The meeting also decided to treat 2015-16 fiscal as the base year. States will collect the tax from the companies with turn-over exceeding Rs 1.5 crores. Losses suffered by states on account of the GST will be compensated by the Centre.

Their last three years growth rate will be a deciding factor in this connection. The GST tax rate will be decided at the next three- day meeting beginning on October 17 next.