Arun Goyal appointed Additional Secretary of GST Council

Senior IAS officer Arun Goyal has been appointed Additional Secretary in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council. He will be the first Additional Secretary of GST Council Secretariat.
The GST Council headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. It is mandated to decide on tax rate exempted goods and the threshold limit.
Arun Goyal is IAS officer of 1985 batch of Union Territory cadre. Prior to this appointment he was working as Additional Secretary, Project Monitoring Group in Union Cabinet Secretariat.
Background

• The GST Council was constituted as per the Article 279A of the Constitution after the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016 was notified.
• The Union Cabinet had recently approved appointment of the Secretary (Revenue) as the ex-officio Secretary to the GST council.
• Besides, it also had approved inclusion of the chairperson, Central Board of Excise and Customs, as a permanent invitee.
• The Union Cabinet had also approved creation of one post of Additional Secretary and four posts of Commissioner in the GST Council secretariat.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2016