Tag: GST Bill

Will do everything to ease GST woes: Bengal CM

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Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday lashed out at the Centre for destroying the federal structure of the country as the state governments were being forced to follow their (Centre’s) policies despite having objections.

The West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday passed the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) Bill, 2017. Trinamool’s ideological position on GST would not alter, the Bengal CM said. “The common people are facing problems and since we value democracy the party will stand behind the masses,” she said speaking in the Assembly after the passing of the Bill.

“The Centre could have fed many poor people with the money which had gone in the ad spend for creating awareness about GST… The country is now in an acute crisis,” she said. The state had issued an ordinance in June end to facilitate treasury operations by the government from July 1, the date of implementation of the new tax regime across the country.

The Bengal CM said that the state government had “no option” but to issue the ordinance on GST as otherwise, the state would not have been able to conduct any treasury operation. “The state government is sitting before the nozzle of a gun and the central government machinations forced us to do that,” she said.

The Bengal Chief Minister said the state government was clearly against the hasty implementation of the new tax regime and had urged the Centre to postpone it by two months. “But we were really hard-pressed and so the ordinance had to be issued.” The government, she said, needed money to pay salaries, make developmental expenditure and others. As the ordinance had a definite lifetime, it had to be ultimately ratified by the Assembly. She said owing to many objections raised by state finance minister Amit Mitra at the GST Council meetings, taxes on many items of common use had been lowered.

On Trinamool’s stand, she said, “Previously we had supported GST as it was portrayed to be uniform across the nation, but the experience is totally different.” The textile sector, medicine shops, small businessmen had been affected by the new tax law, she said, adding that demonetisation and GST were “two big scandals” perpetrated by the BJP-led government at the Centre.

 

বাধ্য হয়ে মানছি জিএসটি: মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়

কেন্দ্রের জন্য বাধ্য হয়ে রাজ্য পণ্য ও পরিষেবা কর ব্যবস্থা মেনে নিয়েছি কিন্তু গরিব মানুষের স্বার্থে এই কর সম্পর্কে আমাদের যে লড়াই, তা যেমন ছিল, তেমন চলবে। মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা ব্যানার্জি মঙ্গলবার বিধানসভায় ‘ওয়েস্ট বেঙ্গল গুডস অ্যান্ড সার্ভিস ট্যাক্স’ বিল অনুমোদন করাতে গিয়ে এই কথা বলেছেন।

তিনি বলেন, “পণ্য পরিষেবা করের ব্যাপারে আমরা কখনওই আমাদের অবস্থান থেকে সরে আসেনি। এক দেশ এক কর ব্যবস্থা, আমরা সমর্থন করেছি। কিন্তু, সবসময় বলেছি, দেখতে হবে এর ফলে গরিব মানুষ যেন ক্ষতিগ্রস্ত না হয়। উপযুক্ত পরিকাঠামো সারা দেশে গড়ে তোলার জন্যে, বিষয়টি সম্পর্কে মানুষকে অবহিত করার জন্য, তাড়াহুড়ো না করতে অনুরোধ করেছিলাম। তা সত্ত্বেও ওরা তাড়াহুড়ো করেছে। গরিব মানুষের কথা ভাবেনি। এরপরেও গরিব মানুষের যেটুকু সুবিধা আছে তা আমাদের লড়াইয়ের জন্যই। আমাদের অর্থমন্ত্রী অমিত মিত্র অনেক সময়ই একা লড়াই করেছেন। জয়ললিতা ছাড়া কেউ পাশে ছিলেন না। এর আগে আমরা অধ্যাদেশ জারি করেছি, এখন আইন করেছি। না–হলে কেন্দ্রের অসহযোগিতায় সরকারি কাজকর্ম বন্ধ হয়ে যেত। আমাদের টাকা আমরাই ব্যবহার করতে পারতাম না। জিএসটি আইন হয়ে যাওয়ার পর এখন তো আর এমপাওয়ার্ড কমিটি নেই। কাউন্সিল হয়েছে। তার চেয়ারম্যান অরুণ জেটলি। তবুও আমরা সাধারণ মানুষের স্বার্থে বিভিন্ন দ্রব্য ও পরিষেবায় করের হার কমানোর জন্যে লড়াই চালিয়ে যাচ্ছি।”

অর্থমন্ত্রী অমিত মিত্র বলেন, “মুখ্যমন্ত্রীর নির্দেশে জিএসটি নিয়ে এমপাওয়ার্ড কমিটিতে প্রচণ্ড লড়াই করেছি বলেই রাজ্যগুলো কিছুটা সুবিধা পাচ্ছে। সুজন চক্রবর্তী জানান, বাংলার বঁড়শি সারা ভারতে এমনকী দেশের বাইরেও রপ্তানি হয়। বঁড়শি ও পোশাক শিল্পে যাতে করের বোঝা কমে তা দেখতে হবে। এবং ওষুধের ওপর বিশেষ করে জীবনদায়ী ওষুধের ওপর কর যাতে ৫ শতাংশের বেশি না হয় তা নিয়ে কেন্দ্রকে চাপ দেওয়া হোক।”

 

We are 100% for GST. We are 100% for supremacy of Parliament: Trinamool

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

I am moving the amendment. Sir, this has been a long journey for 17 years. We have been part of this process and since 2000 we have consistently supported GST.

My amendment says, whatever the GST Council proposes, the Parliament must not be bypassed. We know the GST Council has a strong federal structure but the Parliament must not be bypassed. Sir, we are all for GST, but this is an important point.

Sir, when the GST Council wanted the rate to be half-quoted into the Bill, the Hon. Finance Minister said: “this provision will suffer from the vice of excessive delegation”.

We are 100% for GST. We are 100% for supremacy of Parliament.

Sir, we are moving this amendment and we want a division.

 

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy speaks on GST Bill

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Sir, thank you so much. My party, All India Trinamool Congress is consistently maintaining the stand that we are in favour of GST. From 1999, we have always said in our election manifesto that we are in favour of GST. There is no deviation from that stand even today.

After looking into these Bills we have certain reservations, because there are certain in-built contradictions in the Bills as rightly pointed out by many members very eloquently, I do not want to repeat those.

Sir, in Mahabharat, when Krishna was giving sermons to Arjun, he said the body is mortal but the soul is not. It changes the body like we change clothings. Similarly, we are not abolishing the taxes. They are just being brought under the umbrella of GST.

Sir, I am concerned with the manner in which GST Council has been framed. Are we creating a monster? In Clause 65 of the Bill, which is about audits, says,

“Commissioner or any officer authorised by him, may undertake, audit of any registered person.”

According to this, the Commissioner will have the power of audit, even special audit as per Clause 66. What about the CAG, which is a constitutional body. I am confused. Sir, the Constitution has clearly stated the role of CAG and in 1971 in consonance with the Government’s provision of Article 149 of the Constitution amendment was passed which was called Auditor General’s Duty, Powers, Conditions of Service Act 1971, and I quote:

“Audit of reports of Union or of States. It shall be the duty of the Comptroller and Auditor General to audit all the receipts which are payable into the consolidated fund of India and of each State and of each Union Territory having a Legislative Assembly and to satisfy himself that the rules and procedures in that behalf as designed to secure an effective check on the assessment, collection and proper allocation of the revenue.”

Therefore, the entire duty has been assigned to the Controller and Auditor General under Chapter 5 of the Constitution. The entire chapter has been devoted to Controller and Auditor General and here, in this Bill, the audit and special audit has been given to a tax officer to be appointed by the government.

So, I have little bit of confusion. I know that Mr Jaitley is a successful and eminent lawyer of this country; he has replied to every issue. When he speaks, he speaks like  Antony of Julius Caesar. And those who are sitting in the Opposition, at least some of them are Brutus, Cassius and Casca. So, I want a clarification from the Hon. Finance Minister on this particular issue .

Thank You, Sir.

 

Bengal fought hard to protect cooperative federalism during the formulation of GST: Trinamool

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Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee today said in the Lok Sabha that “Bengal fought hard to preserve and protect cooperative federalism in the process of the formulation of the GST”. He was speaking during a discussion of the GST Bills in Parliament.

In his speech he highlighted the proactive role taken by the Finance Minister of Bengal, who is the Chairman of the Empowered Committee. “Bengal Finance Minister was instrumental in bringing about a broad consensus amongst states on single control in the hands of the State below Rs 1.5 crore turnover of small business in its meeting in the great city Calcutta many months ago,” he said.

He reiterated that Mamata Banerjee had in-principle supported the concept of GST as early as 2009 in our party-manifesto. Kalyan Banerjee said, “Bengal engaged uncompromisingly in a spirit of cooperative federalism and fiscal autonomy of the States.”

He cautioned the government against rushing ahead with the legislation; he said steps must be taken to make the system fully error free or else the whole indirect taxation system would collapse. He pitched for an e-based taxation system and said industry must be given sufficient time to prepare themselves for the new system.

Kalyan Banerjee also reminded the government that GST is the result of the hard work by all and no one should claim credit for it alone.

Also speaking on the issue, Saugata Roy cautioned the government against the “technological nightmare” that GSTN could bring and asked the government not to hurry. “If there will be any breakdown in the server, all over the country GST will go flat. So, Sir, I want the Government to be very careful. Government has said that they will train 60,000 officers for this job. For that, at least six months are necessary,” he said.

He also reminded the government that prices should not rise during the transition period. He wanted to know why the government was in a hurry o pass GST when the rates of individual commodities have not yet been decided. He wanted to know from the Centre where would the extra money come from to compensate the States.

Click here to read the full transcript of Kalyan Banerjee’s speech

Click here to read the full transcript of Saugata Roy’s speech

Saugata Roy makes a Point of Order on the GST Bill

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Madam, I’m not speaking on the merits of the Bill. It has been passed in the Inter-State Council and the Cabinet has taken a decision. I am objecting to these midnight manoeuvres. The Minister on Friday passed the motion on Government business for the coming week. If it was uploaded on the midnight of Friday, then why did lit not come on the List of Business for today?

Why has it been introduced today? Because the Minister knows that there is a Business Advisory Committee meeting chaired by you, and called by you, which will take place at 1 o’clock today. Then we’ll come in a hurry. So we’ll have the Bill tomorrow and then we will discuss immediately.

Madam, there is a time for such an important business. Madam, please do not upset the balance in parliamentary procedure; members should be given sufficient time to deliberate, discuss, think, to put objections, whatever. Madam, you should give a ruling on this. The House should not be suddenly jolted into action by midnight manoeuvres.

 

Bengal did not backtrack on GST: Amit Mitra

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Q: Your state has been one of the biggest proponents of goods and services tax (GST). What happened, what went wrong, why did the state backtrack on the GST bill?

Dr Mitra: I don’t think that the state backtracked at all. There was a special session called for a very difficult and important subject—changing the name of the state—and that involved 3-4 hours of discussion. There was also a dengue issue which the opposition wanted to raise and Mamata Banerjee was gracious in having discussed at the democratic level that required several hours. We had a third topic which related to centre-state relations vis-àvis flow of funds.

Now if you have to do a GST in the middle of that one-day session it will require at least 2-3 hours of discussion, according to demands made by both sides of the floor. West Bengal led by Mamata Banerjee has been the biggest supporter of GST. It was we who helped the most not only in the Lok Sabha, but in the Rajya Sabha as well.

In 2009 in our manifesto we had GST. I believe you only need 50% states to ratify and it has been ratified and after the assembly session where we could not accommodate because of the local serious pressures of name change of the state, I have chaired an empowered committee meeting as finance minister of West Bengal where we called all the industry associations, company secretaries, chartered accountants and small and medium enterprises. So this is a work in progress.

Q: By when do you think would this be passed by your assembly?

Dr Mitra: Well, it is a matter of the next assembly meeting, whenever it comes, we will bring it up, but at this time there is practically no need to go through this process as a binding issue, because the President has already given assent. We are the most important supporters of the GST for the people of India.

Q: Which is why it came as a surprise to many and they said that possibly there are some issues that you want to sort out before you pass the bill.

Dr Mitra: Issues are parallel issues, issues which relate to federalism in India …. nothing to do with GST. For example, over Rs6,000 crore has not been received by the state including 100 days work compensation, so it is an ongoing process.

We have taken 26% equity in a deep sea port. We are also building our own state ports, there is a conversation going on.

In centre-state relations, we stand for federalism, this is an ongoing process. It is a different track altogether. As far as we are concerned, the government-to-government relawhat tionship goes on with its processes.

GST is for national interest and therefore Mamata Banerjee stood in support of it. That will continue and I continue to chair the empowered committee of finance ministers on behalf of my state. What is happening as far as the empowered panel meetings are concerned in terms of the discussion or rather the differences as far as a rate is concerned? Some states say it should be raised up to as much as to 24%, some say it should be around

Q: 18%. How are those discussions going; where do you think it will settle?

Dr Mitra: I think the key point is there are multiple rates given by researchers, so the chief economic advisor to the government of India suggested 15-15.5% in the average rate, then you had at one time National Institute of Public Finance and Policy suggesting 27% and there is the Vijay Kelkar committee report, which came as the first report on GST, suggesting 12%. This is a matter of revenue neutrality so that state revenue is preserved. Different states may have different views but has happened is the empowered committee has fully given support unanimously to the fact that we have two principles.

Principle one: GST rate should not be such that common people get inflationary pressure. What’s the point of GST, which at the end of the day is for the people?

Principle two: it should not be so low that states do not get revenue, centre has to compensate for 5 years and they don’t have the money to compensate. Despite constitutional process they may get into a problem, so it should be an optimal rate, not a maximal rate.

Q: Where is that optimal rate coming up to?

Dr Mitra: This is exactly what the GST council will debate in the coming weeks. I am sure it will be a full debate.

Q: Do you think between 20-22% is where it should land in terms of a cap?

Dr Mitra: It would be very difficult for me to hazard a number as a guess. It would be pre-empting the views of other state finance ministers.

Q: If I talk to you as the finance minister of Bengal, what would your view be?

Dr Mitra: I would not present the view here. I would present it at the GST council. The reason is, we have to discuss it, we have to listen to each other, only then after listening to arguments of each other along with the Union finance minister who is the chair of the GST council, will we arrive at a decision. It is too pre-emptive today for me to just give you a rate. It would be unfair and wrong.

I am not asking you to give me a rate and say that this is the rate that we will finalize because obviously it is a discussion, there are so many states and Union territories that would be discussing it. But from the perspective of a finance minister of a state, if you look at your revenue, if you look at the taxation system and stuff, where do you think the cap could come up to?

I don’t think I can hazard a number for you because as chairman of the empowered committee I cannot say, I just cannot give you a number. Let it come up in the GST council which is happening very soon, let it be discussed.

It is a national issue, this is a very serious issue. I have given you the principle which the empowered committee has defined unanimously—not so high that the industry passes that on to the consumer and there is inflationary pressure. In fact, during the discussion of the empowered committee with the chambers of commerce, one of the questions raised by finance ministers was, when taxes are raised industry tends to pass on those taxes to the consumers and why should they bear it?

Q: When taxes get lowered, will the industry pass this on to the consumers?

Dr Mitra: So, I would say that we have defined the principles at the empowered committee of all finance ministers across political parties and across states.

Q: For the panel there are two months to discuss and come up with a consensus as far as all the issues are concerned. Do you think that is a fair enough time?

Dr Mitra: It depends on the intensity with which this is conducted. If you are going to do it on a war footing every day, every week where everybody becomes available, attempt will be to see how this can come up within a certain space of time. Also it will depend on the number of industrial issues that come up. For example, today an industry has 5% value added tax (VAT) and now it is going to face X percent revenue neutral rate (RNR), that industry may be employing 20 million people, that industry will come up and say to you please don’t change my 5% to a much higher number.

So, that has to be discussed in the GST council. There may be categorization of areas, where there are sin goods, there are luxury goods, there are non-luxury goods, all this has to be defined to the satisfaction of the entire GST council.

So, all this will come on the table and already the empowered committee has received many representations. It will go into 6,000-7,000 pages of representations from the industry because we invited that as there should be dialogue. All this has to be collated, structured, made into some kind of a framework and then on principles this will be discussed at the GST council.

 

Edited Excerpts from an interview published in Livemint

 

Kalyan Banerjee speaks on The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2014

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Thank you Hon’ble Deputy Speaker, Sir. At the very outset let me make our party’s position very clear that we are supporting the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2014, which along with the amendments, has been brought to our House. After the Constitution Amendment Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha few days back our Hon’ble Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed the Constitution Amendment Bill. Our party is supporting this Constitution Amendment and GST for the last one decade for the benefit of micro, small and medium enterprises.

These small and medium enterprises are the backbone of the economy in terms of providing employment in our country. Therefore, a single tax imposition through GST will help heavily and our party supports that stand. Our leader who is the most popular leader of Bengal – last election has proved that – The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee extended hands of co-operation for bringing the present Constitution Amendment Bill.

Let me remind this august House that on 5 May, 2015 in support of this Constitution Bill, I took part in the debate on behalf of my party and supported the Bill but made few suggestions and requests. Sir, the proposed Constitution Amendment and GST would subsume various central taxes – like excise duty, additional excise duty, service tax, countervailing or additional customs duty, special additional duty of customs etc. – as well as state level indirect taxes – VAT, sales tax, purchase tax, entertainment tax, luxury tax, octroi, entry tax etc.

Once the Bill is passed there will be a national-level central GST, state-level GST and I-GST spanning the entire value chain for all goods and services with some exceptions. Mechanism for resolving may be decided by the GST Council itself. No doubt, that it is one of the biggest tax forms creating national market for goods and services.

The GST had been stall for long years because of debate between the two national political parties – the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. And country has suffered for that. Economic reforms are a continuous process and seamless. The Indian economy felt that it has come of age to try out a unified taxation system such as VAT or GST.

Although we are supporting the Bill. We are having few points which need clarification from the Hon’ble Finance Minister.

Number one. In a meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Minister, all States unanimously voiced their concern about the problem of dual control under GST by Central and State tax authorities on taxpayers, in respect of micro, small and medium enterprises, and the resultant effect of the hardship on the small taxpayers. A discussion took place in the Empowered Committee on 14 June, 2016 in Calcutta in the presence of Hon’ble Union Finance Minister.

The States unanimously voiced that dual control on these classes of taxpayers will increase their cost of compliance and put them under great hardship. It was pointed out by all the States in the presence of the Honourable Finance Minister, ‘as these taxpayers constitute almost 70 per cent of the tax base but have minimum revenue potential, the dual control will make it difficult for the Centre and States to roll out GST.’

Let me give one example. Let us consider the case of a lady who is running a beauty parlour, which is a small enterprise. That beauty parlour will come within the context of dual control. Therefore, I am making a request to the Finance Minister to exclude micro, small and medium enterprises from the purview of dual control when the GST Bill will be brought to Parliament in the future.

My second point. In the case of I-GST, it is expected that State revenue should not be adversely affected.

My third point. The issue of GST compensation was discussed in the last two meetings of the Empowered Committee that were held on June 14 and July 26, 2016. The States had unanimously agreed that the compensation should be paid in full for a period of five years. This sentiment of the State was shared with the Honourable Union Finance Minister, who was appreciative of the concerns of the States; I must say that. He assured the committee that the Centre is committed to give full compensation for a period of five years.

The proposed amendment which was brought today in Lok Sabha has incorporated the suggestion of the Empowered Committee, but there is no mention of payment of full compensation. But the Honourable Finance Minister, on the floor of Rajya Sabha, committed to the full amount of compensation. Sir, I need a clarification through you from the Honourable Finance Minister that what do you mean by full amount of compensation. Kindly clarify that part. That is a very important aspect for which we need an answer from you.

My next issue, number four, is the tax rate under GST. It is often called revenue neutral rate and is something to which the Empowered Committee has applied two principles. The first is that the GST tax should not be so high that it would adversely affect the common people through inflationary pressure. The second principle of the Empowered Committee is that the tax rate should be such that the revenue of the States also does not suffer.

Sir,  let us hope and pray that the GST gets implemented soon and in a swift manner. Let the Centre get its share of GST and the states, their share of SGST. An inter-state GST mechanism should be made to balance the equation between the two and end the tax competition leading to constant inflation in the country. Let GST bring down prices and push up prosperity and living standards of the people of India.

Sir, I have a request to the Hon’ble Prime Minister today. For every work done in the country, the Prime Minister himself claims the credit. While claiming such credit, the Prime Minister forgets that States are the political executives who work hard for the implementation of the legislative and administrative schemes so that Centre sees the face of success. At least today the Hon’ble Prime Minister, in the august House, must say that the because of the Chief ministers and Finance Ministers of all the states of all the parties, this Bill has been brought and it is Bengal’s Finance Minister, as the Chairman of the Empowered Committee, is the successful claimant of bringing the Bill and getting it passed in the House.

see to our today and understand that what the states are cooperating with you. Because the states are cooperating with you; this is the reason that this Bill will be passed today. Therefore, I request the Hon’ble Prime Minister, please extend your hand of cooperation to the States on a need basis.

Hon’ble Finance Minister, we have extended all our cooperation, now we will watch your actions; how much cooperation will you extend to West Bengal to resolve the problem we have repeatedly brought to your notice. The way the Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal has extended cooperation, the way the Hon’ble Finance Minister Amit Mitra has extended cooperation, I will request to you today, Sir, to give a special package to the state of West Bengal.

Thank you.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hails passage of GST Bill

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Welcoming the passage of the GST bill in Rajya Sabha, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed hope that it will give relief to micro and small businesses and remain under single control of the states.

“We have consistently supported the idea and implementation of GST. Good constitutional amendment was passed today,” she said in a tweet.

“Now in GST Bill in Nov, all states want to give relief to micro and small businesses which must remain single control of the states,” WB CM posted on Twitter soon after the Bill passed in the Upper House of Parliament.

 

জিএসটি বিল পাস হওয়ায় খুশি মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা

রাজ্যসভায় জিএসটি বিল পাস হওয়ায় খুশি মুখ্যমন্ত্রী মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়। তিনি আশা প্রকাশ করেন যে ভবিষ্যতে জিএসটি বিলে ক্ষুদ্র ও মাঝারি ব্যবসায়ীদের স্বার্থরক্ষা করা হবে এবং তারা রাজ্যের আওতায় থাকবে।

“আমরা ধারাবাহিকভাবে জিএসটি বিলের ভাবনাকে সমর্থন করে এসেছি। আজ যে সাংবিধানিক সংশোধনী পাস হয়েছে সেটি ভালো” টুইটে বলেন মুখ্যমন্ত্রী।

“নভেম্বরে যে বিলটি আনা হবে তাতে সব রাজ্যই চায় যেন ক্ষুদ্র ও মাঝারি ব্যবসায়ীদের স্বার্থরক্ষা করা এবং তারা যেন রাজ্যের আওতায় থাকে,” তিনি বলেন।

Derek O’Brien speaks on the GST Bill | Full Transcript

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Sir, I’m still often asked, is your party supporting the Constitutional Amendment on GST? I’m sad actually that I’ve been asked this question, because we should put this question to the Government and the principal Opposition party. We often get confused when they are supporting and when they are not; what their stand is depends on where they sit.

Trinamool consistent on GST

There are many of us in the middle who have been the most consistent on this issue, like my party, the Trinamool Congress. In our 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2016 manifestos we have promised GST – we promised it as an idea and also as an implementation. But we’ll come to that. But when people get up here to speak, especially when they are such articulate lawyers, I feel like a teenager in their presence.

Girgit Samjhauta Tax

I’m going to talk about the details of this Bill – I had great experience being on the Select Committee and I’m going to talk about that in great detail – but before we get into the nitty gritty of the Bill, Sir, there is the politics of the Bill. And sometimes, when it’s convenient, the Government or the principal opposition party do not want to discuss the politics of the Bill.

When you ask someone what is GST, they’ll probably tell you it’s Goods and Services Tax; but GST could also be interpreted as Girgit Samjhauta Tax, because the way these two parties have behaved, it has been ten years of ping-pong. The Olympics are coming, they would have won the us medals in ping pong, Sir.

Ping-pong politics

Now let me tell you about this ping-pong match between the treasury and the Opposition benches.

I would like to read from the election manifesto of 2009 of a party; page 19, point 6: “CST will be abolished and GST would be rationalised between 12% and 14%.”

Whose manifesto is this? The BJP. They haven’t taken it off, it’s still on their site.

My senior learned friend, now the Leader of the House once said: “We won’t be fairly treated. We wi’ll cut off our own hands, our constitutional authority and hand over all fiscal powers to the Centre.”

Mr Jaitley has said many things about FDI in retail also, when he was Leader of the Opposition. But as I said, they take their stand based on where they sit, Sir. And they are such great lawyers, you give them any brief, they’ll twist it to meet that only, with all due respect.

Sir, there’s a very interesting quote I found from 2011, Sir.

It says, “The new Constitution amendment draft proposed by the Government of India, is retrograde. It is completely against fiscal federalism.”

This was said by Saurabh Patel, Finance Minister of Gujarat in 2011. Now, I’ve forgotten who the Chief Minister of Gujarat was in 2011. but this was said, Sir. And, the now Honourable Prime Minister said in February 2014, “Without proper IT and infrastructure, GST is impossible to implement.”

Sir, this politics of GST is very very important because for two years, two Houses were stalled by two abbreviations by the BJP – one was GST and the other one was FDI. So, Sir, their memory is very very short.

Go Slow Tactics

Sir, we’re done with the BJP. Now we get to this side. My Chidambaram used a very nice phrase – GST, he said, was ‘Good Sense Triumphs’ – nice one, Sir. But our interpretation, or your interpretation when your colleagues came to the Select Committee, was not ‘Good Sense Triumphs,’ it was ‘Go Slow Tactics.’

This is exactly what your colleagues did in the Select Committee. And all of us here in the middle, who are not the Congress or the BJP – the SP, the BSP, the BJD, the DMK, the NCP, the CPI, all of us saw the go-slow tactics. Unfortunately the Select Committee is not telecast on prime-time television, these parliamentary debates are.

Implementation

Mr Chidambaram today made the point about his party supporting the idea of GST. Of course, we are also for the idea. But only having an idea is not good, we are for the IMPLEMENTATION of GST. And Mr Chidambaram made a nice point about the triangle. The triangle has to be decided between the Finance Minister and the States and the people. Yes, Sir, I want to tell the people, we also believe you have to find a solution. The difference between us and the Congress, we believe, the bottom of the triangle is the people.

GST cap

All of us are on the same page on this. Eighteen per cent cannot go into that constitutional amendment. You spend every minute of the Select Committee stopping it. The Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers, with 21-22, are unanimous that you cannot have the 18% either in the constitutional amendment or in the GST Bill.

But the language I was hearing today is the language of ‘hold on, we let you play the first innings, when it comes to the second innings, we’ll try and block you.’ I think if the tone is conciliatory, and the tone ought to be conciliatory, this Parliament must debate, must deliberate, must legislate, good – but we also need to implement, we must implement.

Role of Rajya Sabha

Sir, now let’s come to the role of the Select Committee. Thank heavens for the Rajya Sabha, because if there was no Rajya Sabha, there would have been no Select Committee, and then you would have not got the wisdom of the Rajya Sabha.

Let me give a quote to you, Sir. It was said in April 2016 (very recently, Sir) –

“To what extent the Upper House is going to be used to block economic decision-making? In Australia, the UK, Italy, the debate is on, because ultimately, the weight of a directly elected House will always have to be maintained”.

This was said by the Leader of the House. Mr Arun Jaitley, if you are being in a conciliatory mood this is not what the Leader of the House could have said. You used the Lok Sabha to bulldoze legislation. The Bill came to the Rajya Sabha, there were points made, everyone had points to make, and based on these points, Sir, there were lots of changes to the legislation.

Consensus among States and Centre

Yes, there was the exempted category on petroleum. States had a problem with that, and we appreciate that it was taken care of. So were tobacco products, so were inter-State transactions, so was the dispute redressal mechanism; we did not want a separate authority. All that is fine. We appreciate that the Government reached out to the States, worked with the States, worked with the Finance Ministers.

Compensation

Sir, but on the ground I want to flag one issue regarding implementation. It is the issue of compensation for CST; I am giving you one example because it concerns my State. I am trying to flag how difficult it is to implement this. Sir on CST, Centre owes my State dues worth Rs 6,500 crore. Not only my State, Odisha has about is also owed Rs 3000 crore. Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Telangana all have a lot of outstanding dues, Sir, because of CST.

Sir, in Clause 19, we did make the point, the word MAY will become SHALL and the compensation will be taken care of (up to was dropped) for five years. We appreciate that, Sir. The word ‘full’ compensation was not used in the legislation. I would request the Finance Minister to please clarify that on the floor of this House.

Clause 10

Sir, I want to refer one point about The Constitution One Twenty-Second Amendment Bill as reported by the Select Committee of the Rajya sabha. Here if you look at Clause 10 it is not what was unanimously recommended at the Select Committee. I will read the Clause 10 which was Select Committee Recommendation – “The goods and services tax levied and collected by the Government of India, except the tax apportioned with the States under clause (1) of Article 169A, shall also be distributed between the Union and the States in the manner provided in clause (2).”

Dual control

Sir, small business with less than Rs. 1.5 crore turnover should be kept out of dual control and once that figure goes above Rs 1.5 crore then it should be done jointly between the Centre and the State. Sir, this is very crucial because we don’t want to go into November, and then hit a roadblock for rolling out GST in April, 2017. I need this clarification. I am very scared when I hear April, 2017. Because it is April Fools’ Day. And this ping pong match cannot continue any longer. We need to implement GST in April, 2017. That’s why I am being specific, Sir.

Registration and Compliance

Sir, there are other issues on the implementation. Through you, Sir, I want to flag these issues for the Finance Minister. One of these is not a legislative issue but concerns implementation – GST registration. People will be registering not once not twice but three times in a state.

GST compliance also cannot be 4 or 5 per cent. Sir there is ambiguity, and I don’t want to get technical in the discussion, of supply and value of taxable supply. I think in the implementations, Sir, we seriously need to look at this.

Empowered Committee

Sir, I would be failing in my duty if I did not put on record here the great job done by the Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers across the States. It is my pleasure and privilege that my colleague Dr Amit Mitra, the Hon’ble Finance Minister of Bengal, in 150 days led the team and developed a very broad consensus among the States.

Move over electoral politics

Sir, I was wondering if the politics of the GST will continue into November or from this being a ping-pong match it will become a cricket match where you will play the first innings and then in the 2nd innings it will stop because of rain or other reasons.

Sir, so I did a research on a few countries where GST was passed and in one or two years elections were held. To assure the BJP, after the GST was passed the ruling party won the elections in Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Argentina and Indonesia. That was the good news, now the bad news. There are also some countries where after GST was implemented, the elections were lost – Brazil, UK, Germany and South Africa. So, it’s a 50-50 toss. So my appeal to the BJP and the Congress is that don’t let those election results bother you because they could go either way; bring in this GST.

Bottomline

Sir, I will end with a little story. Sir, in 2005, there was a small boy in class X in a little-known school in Delhi – Saviour School. Sir, he was born around the time when the GST concept was first introduced. This boy is now winning us great victories in cricket matches. He is Virat Kohli.

 

There are millions of Virat Kohlis who are looking at us today. For their sake and for the sake of India tomorrow we need to deliberate, we need to debate, we need to legislate and we need to implement this GST. The faster we do it the better.

Trinamool supports GST Bill in RS, slams ping-pong politics of Congress-BJP

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Consistent with the party’s stand in favour of GST, leader of the party in Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien today reiterated the support for GST Bill in the Upper House.

He said that the issue of Goods and Services Tax feature in all the manifestos of the Trinamool Congress  since 2009 while the current ruling party and the principal Opposition party have changed their stands based on where they sit.

Regional parties are consistent

The Government and Opposition party often change their stand based on where they sit. Parties in the middle are consistent on their stand on the GST.

Girgit Samjhauta Tax

GST has been pending from 2006 to 2016. GST could also be interpreted as Girgit Samjhauta Tax. GST has been 10 years of ping-pong politics between the ruling party and the principal Opposition party. They could win India a medal in Olympics in ping pong.

The ping pong on GST

In their election Manifesto in 2009 BJP said CST  will be abolished and GST will be rationalised between 12 and 14 percent.

As the Leader of the Opposition, Jaitley ji in 2011 said, “We won’t be fairly treated. We will cut off our own hands, our Constitutional authority and hand over our fiscal powers to the Centre.”

Again in 2012,  on FDI in retail he said,  “Structured international retail chains would source the products internationally, to the detriment of India’s manufacturing sector.”

In 2011, the Gujarat Finance Minister Saurabh Patel said, “The new constitution amendment draft proposed by the Government of India is retrograde in nature and completely against the fiscal federalism.”

Who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2011?

Cap of 18% on GST rate

Only having an idea of GST is not enough. We are for the implementation of GST. All of us are on the same page. 18 percent cannot go into the Constitutional Amendment.

Role of a Select Committee

BJP uses the Lok Sabha to bulldoze legislation. Thanks to Rajya Sabha, many positive changes were made. Clause 10 in the Bill is not what was unanimously recommended by the Select Committee. The proceedings of the Select Committee are not televised or else the country would have seen how Congress used ‘Go Slow Tactics’ in the committee.

CST compensation

My State is still owed Rs 6500 Cr as CST compensation. Even Odisha is owed Rs 3000 Cr. I want the Finance Minister to clarify on full compensation.

Dual control

Small business with less than Rs. 1.5 crore turnover should be kept out of dual control. The government must assure the House they will pass a Bill in November and not let the ping-pong match turn the GST Bill into an April Fools’ joke in 2017.

Implementation

Under the three level tax structure proposed under GST (Central, State, interstate), people selling their products or supplying them, across the country will have to get three different registrations in every state.

How does the Government propose to ensure that compliance in GST will not be as low as it is in income tax collections?

Empowered Committee

We appreciate the fact that the Government reached out to the States and worked with the Finance Ministers. I want to put on record the great job done by Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers. Dr Amit Mitra, the Finance Minister of Bengal, who headed the Empowered Committee for 150 days also deserves credit.

Rise above electoral politics

Governments lost elections in Brazil, UK, Germany and South Africa after passing GST Bill. In Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Argentina and Indonesia, they came back to power. Don’t let the election results bother you, bring about the GST Bill legislation.

Bottomline

A boy who was in Class X in 2005 when GST Bill was first introduced, is winning us cricket matches now. He is Virat Kohli. For the sake of many more Virat Kohlis,the young generation of tomorrow, we must debate, deliberate and legislate and take the country forward.

 

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