In 2000, the Vajpayee Government started discussion on GST by setting up an empowered committee, headed by Asim Dasgupta, (Finance Minister, Government of West Bengal). The committee was given the task of designing the GST model and overseeing the IT back-end preparedness for its rollout.
Later in 2006, Union Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram moved towards GST in his Budget, and proposed to introduce it by 1st April, 2010. However, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers (EC) released its First Discussion Paper (FDP) on the GST in November, 2009. This spells out the features of the proposed GST and has formed the basis for discussion between the Centre and the States so far.
