On Wednesday, due to the opposing stance of four opposition-ruled states on the question of giving relief to the common people from GST, not only did the meeting of the GST Council got prolonged, but it also led to voting on this issue.
The four opposition-ruled states, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, and Punjab, were adamant on making arrangements for the revenue loss to the states due to the relief. These states had also proposed to postpone the decision till the matter is resolved. However, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's warning to take a decision on the same day at any cost and hold a vote if necessary, the stance of these states softened.
Sources said that these four states raised questions on the proposal to have two slabs instead of four slabs of GST and a huge reduction in taxes. They said that a provision should be made to the effect that the central government should compensate the revenue loss to the states due to this. This decision should be postponed until this issue is resolved. After a long debate on this matter, West Bengal and Punjab agreed, but Karnataka and Kerala remained adamant. The council meeting got prolonged as two states after four insisted on their demands.
When the time for voting came, the matter was settled
The finance ministers of the ruling NDA ruled states said that since the dispute was not resolved, the decision should be taken through voting. Chhattisgarh's finance minister OP Choudhary repeatedly proposed to hold a vote. The finance minister adopted an aggressive stance. Seeing that the matter was not being resolved, the finance minister adopted a tough stance. She said that the decision on GST relief will be taken today, in any case.
For this, she is ready to sit overnight. She wants the decision should be taken by consensus as always. If consensus is not reached, then a decision will be taken by holding a vote. The finance minister said that the center will take care of the problems of the states. Since common people are being given relief through this, the opposition should cooperate.
Bengal, Punjab, persuaded Kerala-Karnataka
After the tough stand of the finance minister, the finance ministers of other opposition ruled states, including West Bengal, Punjab, persuaded the finance ministers of Kerala and Karnataka. The four states that backed out of voting were afraid of the loss that would be caused by voting. In fact, if voting had taken place, the message would have been that the opposition was creating obstacles in the way of giving relief to the people from inflation. Anyway, in the event of voting, the opposition of the four states was not going to have any effect, because apart from this, all the states were supporting the proposal to give relief in GST.
Ruling party and opposition face-to-face on new changes in GST
The BJP called the GST reforms a historic step and said that every section of society will benefit from this. BJP President JP Nadda said that this is a bumper gift to the people from Prime Minister Narendra Modi before Durga Puja and Diwali. Attacking the Congress, he said that finding flaws exposes the double standards of the opposition party, because Rahul Gandhi opposes the decisions supported by the finance ministers of his party's state governments.
He said that all the decisions of the GST Council were taken unanimously after a general opinion in the states. At the same time, MP and spokesperson Sambit Patra said that every section of society will benefit from this. The party also countered the Congress's claim that it was trying to rationalize taxes. Bureau
Congress made one nation-one tax into one nation-nine taxes
The Congress said that GST 2.0 (the second version of GST) is still awaited. Party President Kharge said that this is GST 1.5, because it is yet to be seen whether it will encourage private investment and whether the burden on MSMEs will be reduced. Kharge said that the demand to extend the period of compensation for the revenue of the states by five years is still unresolved. He said that the government has made one nation-one tax into one nation-nine taxes.
Chidambaram said, realizing the mistake after 8 years and improving GST rates is commendable... Former Union Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has welcomed the decision of the Center. Chidambaram said, when this law was implemented eight years ago, it was wrong. At that time, we had advised that such a tax should not be imposed.
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