Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner and Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (APFC and EO/AO) 2025 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, PENA-A-PTS); answer worked out by our faculty — UPSC has published no answer key for this sitting. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 25 August 2026.

Who amongst the following is not a member of the GST Council ?

(a)Prime Minister of India
(b)Union Finance Minister
(c)Union Minister of State (Finance)
(d)A Minister nominated by each State Government

Answer

Why

Correct — A, (a) Prime Minister of India. The question asks who is NOT a member, and the Prime Minister is the one name in the list that Article 279A leaves out.

Article 279A(2), inserted by the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016, sets out the whole membership in three clauses: '(a) the Union Finance Minister — Chairperson; (b) the Union Minister of State in charge of Revenue or Finance — Member; (c) the Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation or any other Minister nominated by each State Government — Members.' That is the list. Options (b), (c) and (d) reproduce the three clauses in order; the Prime Minister appears in none of them.

The design is deliberate and worth understanding rather than memorising. The GST Council is a body in which the Union and the States bargain as taxing authorities, so the Union is represented by its revenue ministers and each State by the minister who answers for its own taxes. The State members elect one of themselves as Vice-Chairperson under Article 279A(3). Decisions need a three-fourths majority of the weighted votes of members present and voting, with the Union's vote weighted one-third of the total and all the States together two-thirds — an arrangement in which neither side can carry a decision alone. Putting the head of government at the table would cut across that design; the Council is not a Cabinet body.

Read the stem to its end. The word 'not' is what the item is about, and three of the four options are true statements about the Council's composition.

Why the others are wrong

(b)Union Finance Minister — A member — indeed the Chairperson of the Council under Article 279A(2)(a). This is the option most likely to be picked by a candidate who has stopped reading at 'Who amongst the following is', because the Finance Minister is the most prominent name in the list; he is the one member whose position is fixed by the Constitution as presiding.
(c)Union Minister of State (Finance) — A member under Article 279A(2)(b) — the Union Minister of State in charge of Revenue or Finance. The junior ranking makes the office look like an odd fit for a constitutional council, which is exactly why it is offered; the Constitution names it expressly.
(d)A Minister nominated by each State Government — A member under Article 279A(2)(c) — the Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation, or any other Minister nominated by the State Government. Every State and Union territory with a legislature is represented this way, and these members choose the Vice-Chairperson from among themselves. Rejecting this option usually comes from assuming the Union alone sits on a Union-level council, which would defeat the Council's purpose.

Concept

The GST Council is the constitutional forum through which the Union and the States exercise a taxing power they now hold concurrently. Article 246A gave both the power to tax the supply of goods and services; because two governments taxing the same base would pull apart, Article 279A created a Council to recommend the rates, the exemptions, the threshold turnover, the model laws, the place-of-supply rules, and the taxes that were to be subsumed. Its recommendations are the basis on which the Union and the State legislatures pass their own GST laws. The composition is what carries the federal bargain: Union Finance Minister as Chairperson, the Union Minister of State for Revenue or Finance, and one minister from each State, with weighted voting that requires a three-fourths majority.

Negative-stem items reward reading, not recall of anything unusual — the Council's membership is a single short clause of the Constitution. What the examiner is testing is whether a candidate registers the 'not' and then checks all four options rather than the first that looks right. The GST Council also happens to be a favourite because its composition, its voting weights and its Vice-Chairperson each give a clean one-line question.

Negative stems are a deliberate feature of this paper rather than an accident of drafting: thirteen items ask a negative question, and twelve of them sit in the labour-law and accountancy block, where knowing the boundary of a statutory list is the thing being tested. This is the one negative stem outside that block. The booklet emphasises the negation in print, but that emphasis vanishes once a question is read as plain text, which is precisely how a candidate loses a mark on a question whose content he knows. Make it a rule to underline the ask before reading the options, and to check each option against the ask rather than against the subject.

Key facts

Article 279A was inserted by the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016; the President was to constitute the Council within sixty days of that Act's commencement.
Members: Union Finance Minister as Chairperson; Union Minister of State in charge of Revenue or Finance; and the Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation, or any other Minister, nominated by each State Government.
The State members choose one among themselves as Vice-Chairperson (Article 279A(3)).
Quorum is one-half of the total number of members (Article 279A(7)).
Every decision needs at least three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting; the Union's vote counts one-third and all the States together two-thirds (Article 279A(9)).
The Council recommends rates, exemptions, threshold limits, model GST laws, principles of levy and place of supply, and special rates during a natural calamity.
Under Article 279A(5) the Council also recommends the date from which GST is to be levied on petroleum crude, high speed diesel, motor spirit, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel.
Alcoholic liquor for human consumption is excluded from the definition of GST itself under Article 366(12A).

Study next

Article 246A and the concurrent power to tax supplies of goods and servicesArticle 269A — inter-State supply, IGST, and apportionment between the Union and the StatesWhich taxes were subsumed into GST and which survived, with the Seventh Schedule entries as amendedThe weighted-voting formula and what it means for the Council's federal characterGST compensation to States and how the arrangement was designed to end

Common traps

Missing the 'not' in a negative stem — here it is the entire question.
Assuming the Prime Minister chairs every high-level council; the Constitution names the Union Finance Minister as Chairperson of this one.
Confusing the Chairperson with the Vice-Chairperson, who is elected by the State ministers.
Reciting 'two-thirds majority' for the voting rule; the requirement is three-fourths of weighted votes, with two-thirds being the States' share of the weight.

The GST Council appears in these papers either as a composition question like this one or as a voting-weights question. Both are answered from the text of Article 279A, so learning that one Article in its own words is worth more than reading around the subject. Expect the negative form regularly — this paper alone carries thirteen negative stems.

Related PYQs

EPFO_APFC_2016_Q57

Which of the following are the roles of the Finance Commission in India ? 1. The distribution of money collected through taxes 2. Evaluation of Centrally sponsored schemes 3. Evolve principles based on which funds are allotted among States 4. To develop Five Year Plans Select the correct answer using the codes given below :

(a) 1 and 4 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 and 4 only
(d) 2 and 3 only

Answer(b) 1 and 3 only

The other constitutional body that stands between the Union and the States on money — the Finance Commission, asked as a statement item on what its roles actually are.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Who among the following is the Chairperson of the Goods and Services Tax Council ?
- (a)The Prime Minister of India
- (b)The Union Finance Minister
- (c)The Union Minister of State in charge of Revenue
- (d)A State Finance Minister elected by the States
Answer(b) The Union Finance Minister
practice — not a real PYQ
A decision of the Goods and Services Tax Council requires the support of at least which one among the following ?
- (a)A simple majority of the members present and voting
- (b)Two-thirds of the weighted votes of the members present and voting
- (c)Three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting
- (d)The unanimous consent of all the States
Answer(c) Three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting

Why