The GST Council at a meeting on Saturday broadly agreed on the contours of two key legislations CGST and IGST – but a final approval is likely only by mid-March.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley met with his state counterparts and discussed the GST legislation to be adopted by Union Territories, but there was no discussion with regard to the State GST Bill.

“As many as 26 changes sought by the states have been accepted by the Centre. This shows the federalist character of India. CGST and IGST will come up for further discussion at the next meeting of the Council in mid-March,”

Mitra further said both the Centre and states have agreed to provide a composition scheme to dhabas and small restaurants.

“States were seeking that dhabas and small restaurants can adopt the composite scheme. The Centre has agreed to that and now these small businesses will pay 5 percent tax (to be shared equally between the Centre and states).

It has been agreed that there will be cross-empowerment of states. Also, we did not want this as a notification, we wanted in the Act so that never in future can another council come and say states won’t have power