puts the states in a bind: if they want an early passage of the consignment tax bill they must agree to the finance minister's stipulations. This conditionally they must resist or else they will end up with a situation worse than at present, for then all state transactions will tend to pass off as consignments of the exempted type, even those which today can be brought within the sales tax net. What the deliberations of the council have brought out is the extent of divergence between the centre and the states.