The Goods and Services Tax Council could look at the inclusion of petroleum products in the GST net in stages, Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Friday. “One of the demands that is there before us, we will see,” Mr. Adhia said on the topic of including fuel in GST, at a FICCI event.
“Everything will happen in stages,” he said.
Multiple calls
Calls for petroleum products to be included in GST have come from several quarters, including from within the government itself, with Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan saying that it should be included in GST, and the Civil Aviation ministry saying that having aviation turbine fuel outside the ambit of GST was raising costs for the industry. The Finance Secretary also said that the deadline for the implementation of GST meant that the government had to rush some processes, and that despite the best efforts of those working on it, the technology behind the system nevertheless let them down. “Since we had to meet a certain deadline, we needed to hurry up the process,” Mr. Adhia said. “Somewhere, I made a reference about the technology failing us but that does not mean that the people in GSTN failed us. Marvellous people work in GSTN, and despite their efforts, the technology still failed us.”