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The Central Government has nominated Uttarakhand Finance Minister Premchand Agarwal as a member of the Group of Ministers (GOM) constituted to impose a special disaster cess in case of natural calamities.
The GST Council has constituted a group of ministers to impose a special disaster cess in case of a natural calamity in a State. The seven-member group of ministers includes Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna of Uttar Pradesh, Premchand Agarwal of Uttarakhand, Ajanta Neog of Assam, OP Choudhary from Chhattisgarh, Kanubhai Desai from Gujarat, KN Balagopal from Kerala and Chandrima Bhattacharya from West Bengal. The group of ministers will examine the constitutional and legality of levying special cess by states to raise revenue in case of natural calamity or disasters. The aim is to examine and identify the framework used to classify an event as a natural calamity for the purpose of levying such special cess by states under the GST regime. An avalanche had struck the Chamoli district in Uttarakhand on February 28 and claimed 8 lives. According to the Indian Army, 46 out of the 54 BRO workers were rescued and are undergoing treatment, while 8 people lost their lives in the avalanche. (ANI)
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