Issues related to tax collections, revenue deficit, and measures to control tax evasion are likely to take the centre stage today.

41st GST Council Meet Live: The GST Council is meeting today for the 41st time amid a heated debate on providing compensation cess to the states. While the promise of the centre of compensating revenue loss below 14 per cent growth till 2022 seems to be a daunting task to fulfil, the states and the opposition party have been consistently raising the issue of a revenue shortfall. However, the sources said that law was clear that compensating states was binding on the centre if shortfall arose on account of implementation of goods and service tax but in the current scenario the revenue shortfall was due to the pandemic. Hence, the centre and states have to collectively resolve the situation according to the true spirit of the GST Act under the federal framework of the constitution. Today’s meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is likely to revolve around the ways in which the shortfall can be met as it has been discussed in the previous meetings. The compensation fund which was under stress even before the pandemic hit, has taken further hit as the economy paralysed due to standstill businesses and industries. Issues related to tax collections, revenue deficit, and measures to control tax evasion are also likely to take the centre stage today.