GST’s 1 April roll-out deadline seems unachievable

New Delhi: As the differences between the Centre and States over the draft GST Bill persist, it has started becoming likely that the Goods and Service Tax may not be rolled out from April 1, as targeted earlier by the government.

The GST Council meeting on Sunday failed to see consensus between the Centre and States on several issues, and again decided to meet on December 22 and 23 to hammer out a consensus.

Monday being a holiday on account of Eid-e-Milad, some states requested for deferring the meeting to some other date in December.

After the meeting, the Finance Minister told the reporters that the government still stands by the April 1 rollout date. The government had made the rollout of GST as one of its key reform priorities. "I told you after the last meeting also our target is the 1st of April. The luxury of time is not available to us for the simple reason that if 1st April is the first possible day it can be implemented, then the last date also is constitutionally defined as 16th of September 2017," the FM said.