New Delhi, Oct 8 (PTI) The empowered group of state finance ministers will come out with a draft paper on Goods and Services Tax (GST) within a month to facilitate implementation of the new tax regime by the April 1, 2010.

"The responses of the states will be obtained (on the discussion paper) and the draft will be finalised for discussion. We are trying to do that within the end of this month," empowered group chairman Asim Dasgupta told reporters after a meeting here.

The Group will hold discussions with the stakeholders, including trade and industry, after finalisation of the draft, he added.

The draft, for which a joint working group was constituted last month, would deal with important issues like legislation, rules and procedures of the GST.

The group for preparing the draft comprises officials from the Finance Ministry and state revenue officials.

Goods and Services Tax draft to set legislation, rules and procedures, with stakeholder consultation before implementation. The empowered group will finalise and publish a draft paper on the Goods and Services Tax within a month to enable implementation of the tax regime; the draft, prepared by a joint working group of Finance Ministry and state revenue officials, will address legislation, rules and procedures and will be followed by stakeholder consultations.