Telangana Legislature set to ratify GST Bill today; CM to take final call

Hyderabad: The much-publicised session of TS Legislature, scheduled to be held on Tuesday to ratify the Constitution Amendment Bill for Goods and Services Tax is likely to be confined to a single-day.

The TS Cabinet, which met at the Secretariat on Monday to approve the draft GST Bill and other three Bills replacing Ordinances, is learnt to have decided to confine the session to one day.

However, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was authorised to take a decision on extending the session beyond a day during the Business Advisory Committee to be held on Tuesday.

Both the Houses of Legislature will meet at 11 am on Tuesday. The Chief Minister himself will move the statutory resolution on ratifying the GST Bill in the Assembly while Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari will move it in the Council.

The Cabinet meeting, which went on for nearly two hours, is learnt to have proposed another session after Ganesh Nimajjan. However, a final decision on this was left to the Chief Minister.

Sources said that the Chief Minister may agree to a two-day session to discuss new districts formation, drought-like situation and also the recent pact with Maharashtra on sharing of Godavari waters.

The Cabinet also discussed in detail the creation of new districts. The Cabinet felt that the creation of 17 districts was done in a scientific manner which would help the government take governance to the grassroots-level and offer better administration and services to the people.

Mr Rao is learnt to have asked ministers to be actively involved in the process of creation of new districts and examine all the objections/ suggestions submitted by the people on the proposed districts.

It was also decided to set up a task force on new districts headed by Chief Secretary and comprising senior revenue officials as members to address issues pertaining to allotment of offices and staff to the new districts. Mr Rao asked ministers and officials to ensure that no legal problems crop up with the scrapping of the zonal system.

The Cabinet also approved three Bills replacing Ordinances pertaining to the division of Cyberabad Police Commissionerate, changes in VAT structure of certain items and raising the number of members in temple trust boards from nine to 15.