Kolkata: West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Friday clarified that Trinamool Congress is not against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) but the the present scheme is half-baked and dangerous.
“The ruling party (BJP) at the Centre opposed GST for seven years in every way possible. I had to fight them when I was in Delhi. The then Gujarat Chief Minister and now the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had opposed it. Our party (Trinamool) supported GST in 2009 and nobody else’s manifesto carried it,” he said.
While questioning preparedness on GST, he said, “We all can come up with a white paper on its preparedness. We believe that this is a game changer. Mamata Banerjee has said that we are not against GST rollout. But we are not yet ready for it. Postpone GST launch for now. We have together made GST happen. Nobody needs to seek credit, it is to everybody’s credit, provided we are ready for it.”
Mitra, a former Secretary General of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said only one more month is needed to make the rectifications. “We can get it done together but not by this zabardasti way,” he said.
The minister said Trinamool will boycott the GST launch as they don’t want to sit and clap when the country is not ready for GST. “Total 26 points suggested by us were accepted by the GST Council. Two months ago we flagged preparedness. We want GST to succeed nationally but not in this way,” Mira added.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that the disastrous hurry to implement GST was another epic blunder of the Centre after demonetisation.
Mitra asked the Centre why those running small and medium enterprises, who are responsible for 40 per cent of the GDP, gone on strike. “They are crying out loud, saying we are not ready for GST, give us some time,” he said.
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