Any such decision will need to be cleared by the GST Council which includes finance ministers of all states and the central government. However, faced with opposition from many states, the GST Council has not been able to heed industry’s demands for keeping exclusions to a minimum. Worried about revenue loss, states are not in favour of inclusion of petrol, diesel, real estate and alcohol under GST. The GST Council can bring all the other items into GST as and when there is a consensus without amending the Constitution. The large part of the slippage is statistical in character because of absence of a month’s revenue,” he added.

Source: Mint February 05, 2018 18:33 UTC