"goods-and-services-tax-gst"

This meant that the central government continued to levy excise duty, while state governments charged VAT.

While the burden on the consumers is "understood", the pricing is a vexatious issue, she said.

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had also urged Union Finance Minister Nirmalya Sitharaman to bring petroleum products under the ambit of the GST.

It will also urge the government to rectify glitches in e-commerce for preventing violation of law by foreign e-commerce companies.

The ministry on Friday released the 17th weekly instalment of Rs 5,000 crore to 23 states and 3 Union Territories

The traders' body has been raising concerns for some time now over the arbitrariness of the tax regime. It has also called for a traders' strike on February 26.

Though the dates for next GST Council meeting is yet to be finalised, finance minister sources said its due and may take place anytime after the budget presentation.

CBIC had last week amended rules to make it mandatory for businesses with monthly turnover of over Rs 50 lakh to pay at least 1 per cent of their GST liability in cash.

Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra also said that they are working to further reduce compliance burden for industry.

From January onwards, small taxpayers would need to file only eight returns (four GSTR-3B and four GSTR-1 returns) in a year, one of the sources said.

State Finance Minister T Harish Rao stated that the Centre must borrow the amount and distribute it among the States rather than States approaching financial institutions for loans.