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EW DELHI: At the Economist India Summit held on Wednesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the government has kept very stiff target for implementation of the GST Bill and they are “running against time”.

“We have kept a very stiff target and the reason is that there is a great national aspiration in support of a reform that GST is, and State after State within a period of 20-25 days have kept on ratifying it because they stand to benefit the most,” Mr. Jaitley said in New Delhi at the Summit.

While the bill has already been passed in both the houses, a few measures still remain:
1) Collecting proceedings of all the States and sending it to the President for ratification. (ongoing) 2) Assent of the president.
3) Notification of the Constitution Amendment Bill.
4) Constitution of the GST Council

Even after notification and constitution of the GST Council, Mr. Jaitley said, there were obviously some pending issues, which the Council will have to resolve. Speaking about the importance of GST, he said, “But more important ,along with these legislations is, I think if you ask me in terms of economic priorities even outside Parliament, I would say that certainly implementation of the GST is the top priority...,”

The Centre is aiming to bring into play the landmark indirect tax regime from next April.