PNS | DEHRADUN
The State’s Finance and Parliamentary Affairs minister Prem Chand Aggarwal has been nominated in the group of ministers (GoM) constituted by the GST council for revenue mobilisation for natural disasters and calamities.
The convenor of the GoM is the Finance minister of Uttar Pradesh Suresh Kumar Khanna and Finance ministers of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand are its members.
The appointment of Aggarwal comes at a time when the demand for his removal from the State cabinet is being raised from various quarters. The controversy which had erupted after his alleged use of abusive language for the people of the mountainous parts of the State during the budget session of Vidhan Sabha is continuing to rage in the State.
The GoM constituted by the GST council will examine the constitutional and legal feasibility to levy a special cess by States for revenue mobilisation to deal with natural calamity or disasters. The GoM will also examine and identify the framework for classifying an event as a natural calamity or disaster.
It will also examine whether any alternate mechanism can be devised for helping States in case of a natural disaster without altering the basic structure of GST.
