Current GST a mockery and imperfect: Former Finance Minister
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that current GST is "imperfect", "a mockery", and should have been delayed by two months. "The aim was that one indirect tax will subsume all other indirect taxes. This GST fails to achieve that," he said. He further added that Congress will press for the reduction in rates and an 18% cap.
Almost a week after the rollout of the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Congress today called it "imperfect" and a "mockery" of the original draft, and added that it should have been delayed by at least two months since it fails to achieve its purpose in its current form."The GST rollout should have been delayed by two months. The GST Network should have undergone a dry run before implementation," former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in a press conference in New Delhi."This is not the GST the UPA government had envisaged. It's imperfect, a mockery of GST," Chidambaram said, adding that his party, the Congress, will press for the reduction in rates and an 18 per cent cap. "The aim was that one indirect tax will subsume all other indirect taxes. This GST fails to achieve that," he said.The senior Congress leader demanded that real estate, electricity and petroleum products must be brought under GST. Citing the example of the crisis in the Tamil Nadu film industry, Chidambaram said there are seven rates in the current GST. On top of that, the states have also been allowed to impose their own taxes, which is creating the crisis."It is not the true GST. There must be a trial run for two months to allow the industry and companies to clear their stocks and then a proper rollout should have happened from September," he said.On the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passing the GST Bill, Chidambaram said it does not dilute Article 370. "For Jammu and Kashmir, it is possible to implement GST without diluting Article 370. For that, you need deliberation, not the acrimony," he said.