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Sir, I support the points raised by the other members regarding this issue. The traders in the largest textile hub in Eastern India, the Barabazar area, have been on strike for a long time – almost one month. Through you, Sir, I would like to request the Hon. Finance Minister to meet the delegation of the textile traders. One of our members has given a Notice for a full-fledged discussion on the issue. It must be taken up.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee put up a post on Facebook today, expressing her fears on GST in the present form.
She said that now “freedom and democracy stand to face grave danger”. Among other things, she criticised the “rather draconian arrest clause which can lead to major harassment of business, particularly the small and medium, with some sections even being non-bailable”.
Her full Facebook post is given below:
At the stroke of midnight on 14th August, 1947, India won her freedom.
Now, at the midnight of 30th June, 2017, freedom and democracy stand to face grave danger.
The mockery of Inspector Raj is back.
I am shocked to find that the GST rules contain a rather draconian arrest clause which can lead to major harassment of business, particularly the small and medium, with some sections even being non-bailable too.
I would like to point out that under the current VAT regime, the field officials of the State do not have the power to arrest. If they feel that there is a serious tax offence, then they will have to file a FIR and pursue the due process of law.
But in the case of GST, the Inspectors will have the power to arrest on 4 different types of offences which can lead to jail from 1 year upto 5 years.
West Bengal opposed this arrest clause in the GST Council but the Government of India did not pay any heed.
In fact, in the name of GST, they have deviated in many areas from the original intent.
Given the atmosphere in the country of vindictively targeting anyone who dares to disagree with the Central Government, I am deeply concerned that the arrest clause in GST may well be used to target business leaders who raise their voice of dissent on any policy matter or any practices.
I am afraid, from the midnight of today, will darkness loom large in the lives of entrepreneurs and common people?
Click here to read the post on Facebook
Bengal Finance Minister Dr Amit Mitra today held a press conference in Kolkata regarding Goods and Services Tax (GST). During the interaction with the press, he underlined the fact that Bengal is not ready to accept GST in its current form.
Dr Mitra is the chairman of the Empowered Committee on GST, comprising all the 29 States was. It had met in Kolkata on June 14, 2016 in a historic meeting.
The constitutional amendment said that Parliament may, on the recommendation of the GST Council, compensate States for loss of revenue arising out of implementation of GST, upto five yrs. Secondly, for a State, if the income from tax decreases at any time during these five years, the State can decide to not to give its share of the tax to the Centre.
However, Dr Mitra said, “it was decided at this meeting that it should be ‘shall’, not ‘may’, and secondly, not ‘upto 5 years’ but ’period of 5 years’ “.
Other major decisions were taken during the historic meeting in Kolkata.
“It was decided at the meeting that if a business is worth less than Rs 1.5 crore, it would only attract State tax”.
Then, “in the cases 90 per cent of small businesses below Rs 1.5 crore, there would not be any dual control”.
At the 4th GST summit (November 3 and 4), the States had proposed that food grains have to be kept out of GST. “After everyone consented to it, food grains are now tax-free. This is a major victory for the common man”.
The Bengal Finance Minister said, “Daily essentials like raw vegetables and flowers are now tax-free”.
“We have fought to make cottage cheese, puffed rice, flattened rice, betel leaves, popped rice, green tea, vermilion, aalta, organic fertilizers, poultry and khadi clothing tax-free, health services, doctors’ fees, newspapers, textbooks and human hair.”.
Another victory for the States is that “on processed tea, instead of a 12-18 per cent tax, 5 per cent tax has been imposed”.
“The Empowered Committee has given a letter to also make news printing tax-free”, Dr Mitra said.
Some other major victories for the States, as stated by the Finance Minister, are:
He further said, “A 12% tax was proposed on cashew nuts; the fight on that is still going on”.
“They had said that shoes would be taxed at 12%; we have proposed that shoes costing up to Rs 500 should be tax-free”
On films, Dr Mitra said, “In West Bengal, films are taxed at 2% while the Centre is thinking of imposing a 28% tax. We will fight this. If regional films are taxed at 28%, won’t they bite the dust?”
He said, “Though my own powers are limited, I have fought for Maa-Mati-Manush under the inspiration of the Chief Minister and I will continue my fight”.
The Bengal Finance Minister said that GST is not fully prepared and ready, and that rules and forms not completed, so July 1 must not be finalised as the date for the roll-out of GST.
“Until and unless a solution is reached on GST, it will not be introduced in the Bengal assembly”
He questioned whether small and medium-scale industries are equipped to handle the new tax regime.
“The fight is still on,” Dr Amit Mitra said, pointing out that he is likely to attend the June 3 GST Council meeting. “Majority of the country is still not ready to roll out GST,” he added.
জিএসটি নিয়ে নবান্নে সাংবাদিক বৈঠক করেন অর্থমন্ত্রী অমিত মিত্র। তিনি বলেন, ২৯ টি রাজ্য ও ২ টি ইউনিয়ন টেরিটরি নিয়ে জিএসটি’র এমপাওয়ার্ড কমিটি গঠন হয়েছে, সেখানে আমাকে চেয়ারম্যান নির্বাচিত করে। ১৪ জুন ২০১৬ কলকাতায় এমপাওয়ার্ড কমিটি’র ঐতিহাসিক বৈঠক হয়। সংসদে বিল পাস হওয়ার পর চালু হল জিএসটি কাউন্সিল যা হল সর্বোচ্চ উপদেষ্টা মণ্ডলী, যার চেয়ারম্যান হলেন কেন্দ্রীয় অর্থমন্ত্রী।
তিনি বলেন, সাংবিধানিক সংশোধনীর বক্তব্য অনুযায়ী রাজ্যের রাজস্ব কমে গেলে তাহলে তারা ক্ষতিপূরণ দিতে পারে, কোন নিশ্চয়তা নেই। দ্বিতীয়ত, ৫ বছরের যে কোন সময় যদি রাজস্ব কমে যায় কেন্দ্রীয় সরকার ঠিক করতে পারে যে তারা রাজস্ব দেবে না। ওই কলকাতার বৈঠকে ঠিক হয় “it should be ‘shall’, not ‘may’, and secondly, not ‘upto 5 years’ but ’period of 5 years।”
ওই বৈঠকে আরও সিদ্ধান্ত নেওয়া হয়, রাজ্যে ১.৫ কোটির নিচে ব্যবসা হলে তাদের ক্ষেত্রে শুধু রাজ্যের কন্ট্রোল থাকবে। জিএসটি কাউন্সিল তৈরি হলে অবশেষে সিদ্ধান্ত হল ১.৫ কোটির নিচে ৯০ শতাংশ ছোট ব্যবসায় দ্বৈত নিয়ন্ত্রণ থাকবে না।
চতুর্থ জিএসটি বৈঠকে (৩ ও ৪ নভেম্বর) আমরা প্রস্তাব দিয়েছিলাম খাদ্যশস্য জি এস টির বাইরে রাখতে হবে, সকলে সম্মতি দেওয়ায় এখন খাদ্যশস্য করমুক্ত। এটা সাধারন মানুষের একটা বড় পাওনা।
কাঁচা সবজি, ফল, স্বাস্থ্য পরিষেবা, ডাক্তারের ফি, নিউজ পেপার এগুলো করমুক্ত হয়েছে, যা সাধারন মানুষের প্রয়োজনীয়। ছানা, মুড়ি, চিড়ে, পানের পাতা, খই, সবুজ চা, সিঁদুর, আলতা, পোল্ট্রি, জৈব সার, খাদির জামাকাপড় ওপর ট্যাক্স বসাচ্ছিল, লড়াই করে এগুলো করমুক্ত করেছি আমরা।
তিনি আরও বলেন, জুতোর অপর ১২ ট্যাক্স বসাবে বলেছিল, আমরা প্রস্তাব দিয়েছি ৫০০ টাকা পর্যন্ত কোন কর ছাড় দিতে হবে।নিউজ প্রিন্টিং করমুক্ত করার জন্য আমরা চিঠি দিয়েছি, কাজুর ওপর ১২ ট্যাক্স বসাবে বলেছিল, সেই নিয়ে লড়াই এখনো বাকি।
বর্তমানে পশ্চিমবঙ্গে সিনেমার ওপর ট্যাক্স ২ শতাংশ, আজ কেন্দ্রীয় সরকার ২৮ শতাংশ ট্যাক্স বসানোর চিন্তা করছে, আমাদের লড়াই জারি রয়েছে, আঞ্চলিক ভাষার ছবিতে যদি ২৮% ট্যাক্স বসানো হয় তাহলে তা ধুলিস্মাত হয়ে যাবে।সবশেষে তিনি বলেন, আমার একার ক্ষমতা সীমাবদ্ধ তবুও মুখ্যমন্ত্রীর অনুপ্রেরণায় মা-মাটি-মানুষের জন্য লড়াই করেছি এবং এই লড়াই চালিয়ে যাব। জিএসটি পুরোপুরি তৈরী নয়। ১লা জুলাই এটি চূড়ান্ত হবে কিনা তা নিয়ে সংশয় প্রকাশ করেন অর্থমন্ত্রী বলেন যতক্ষণ না জিএসটি সমাধান হয় ততক্ষণ এটি বিধানসভাতেও পেশ করা হবে না।
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
The Chambers of Commerce and Business Confederations lauded the Budget statement 2017-18 by state Finance minister Amit Mitra. The state Budget was placed at the Assembly on Friday. They believe that this Budget after demonetisation can help the state’s growth.
Talking on the Budget, Rakesh Shah, President, Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, said it is a balanced Budget.
Chandra Sekhar Ghosh, President-Designate, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said he believes this Budget is a welfare oriented exercise in the aftermath of demonetisation.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) also welcomed the proposals to earmark Rs 50 crore for Small and Medium Enterprises and Rs 100 crore for farmers.
The State Finance Minister’s announcement on salary increase for Anganwadi workers and Asha workers reflect the State Government’s “sincere will” to improve health and education at the grassroots level, said Rupali Basu, Vice Chairperson, CII Bengal.
In a statement released by Merchants’ Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), they said: finance minister proposed a number of steps in relation to VAT which will be subsumed over GST, is put in place.
অর্থমন্ত্রীর রাজ্য বাজেটের (২০১৭-১৮) প্রশংসা করল শিল্পমহল। শুক্রবার বিধানসভায় রাজ্য বাজেট পেশ করেন অর্থমন্ত্রী অমিত মিত্র। তাদের বিশ্বাস নোটবাতিলের পর এই বাজেট রাজ্যের বৃদ্ধিতে অনেক সাহায্য করবে।
রাজ্য বাজেট সম্পর্কে কলকাতার ভারত চেম্বার অফ কমার্সের রাকেশ শাহ বলেন, এটা একটি সুষম ব্যালেন্সড বাজেট।
দ্য বেঙ্গল চেম্বার অফ কমার্স এবং ইন্ডাস্ট্রির ডেজিগনেটেড সভাপতি চন্দ্রশেখর ঘোষ বলেন, নোট বাতিলের পর এটি একটি কৌশলপূর্ণ বাজেট।
ক্ষুদ্র মাঝারি শিল্পের কারিগরদের জন্য ৫০ কোটি টাকা এবং কৃষকদের জন্য ১০০ কোটি টাকা বরাদ্দের প্রস্তাবকে স্বাগত জানিয়েছে কনফেডারেশন অফ ইন্ডিয়ান ইন্ডাস্ট্রি।
সি আই আই এর ভাইস চেয়ারপার্সন রূপালী বসু বলেন, অঙ্গনওয়াড়ি ও আশা কর্মীদের বেতন বৃদ্ধির কথা ঘোষণা করেছেন অর্থমন্ত্রী, অতএব সরকার স্বাস্থ্য ও শিক্ষার উন্নতিতে বিশেষ জোর দিচ্ছেন।
মার্চেন্ট চেম্বার অফ কমার্স অ্যান্ড ইন্ডাস্ট্রি একটি বিবৃতিতে তারা বলেন, অর্থমন্ত্রীর ভ্যাট সম্পর্কিত অনেকগুলি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ পদক্ষেপ নিয়েছেন যা জি এস টি চালু হলে তার অন্তর্ভুক্ত হবে।
A lot of issues related to roll out of Goods and Services Tax are yet to be resolved, feels Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, chairman of the GST committee of state finance ministers.
“A lot of issues have not been discussed, without which GST cannot be rolled out,“ he told reporters after a pre-state budget meeting with industry bodies and chambers. The Centre has fixed a revised deadline for GST roll out on July 1.
Dr Mitra added that there are at least 15 areas where differences need to be ironed out. According to him, there is no meeting between state revenue officials and their counterparts at the Centre on fitment (fixation of tax slabs for different goods and services).
“In GST, there are tax brack ets like 12% or 18%. But a lot of products are now in the 15% bracket. So it will go to 12% or to 18%. But these issues yet to be discussed.“
Dr Mitra said due to constant efforts by West Bengal, the Centre had admitted single control in GST for tax payers who have a turnover below Rs 1.5 crore.
“As per the revised guidelines, 90% of the dealers (tax payers) in this category will be under state control,“ he added. There are 22.71 lakh tax payers in this category in the country . The number of such tax payers in West Bengal is around 90,000.
Bengal Finance Minister Dr Amit Mitra believes that implementing goods and services tax is not feasible from April. Here is his interview:
How feasible is the April 1 deadline?
There are many issues, at least 15 unresolved, which are critical.For example, the definition of agriculture, definition of agriculturist, what happens to a share cropper? Further, what needs to be resolved is the definition of a state.Now a question that has come up suddenly by the Union government is constitutionally 12 nauti cal miles belong primarily to the Centre and not to the states. Gujarat gets Rs 1,200 crore from ships.Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha and West Bengal have been collecting taxes. There are other issues such as clauses related to arrest and non-profiteering.
What about the arrest clause?
It is the most draconian measure. Barring one state, Gujarat, no state has the arrest clause in VAT and it has never arrested anybody .Above Rs 2 crore tax violation will be eligible for arrest but bailable. The minute you cross Rs 5 crore, it is non-bailable. And who gets the power? The tax officer. What kind of power? The same power that a police inspector has.
But why didn’t you or others protest?
Several states, including Andhra Pradesh, said this should not be there. Then, the question was let us keep it but then water it down.
Why water it down? Why not drop it and make it same as the VAT law?
In West Bengal, tax collection doubled in five years without the power to arrest. States across political parties are of the view that the arrest clause is in violation of ease of doing business…
The anti-profiteering clause was inserted to protect consumers. Why the opposition?
The argument made by businesses was that competition should take care of the fact that when we benefit from taxes, if I don’t lower my prices, somebody else will.It may not happen in a monopoly or an oligopoly . That’s where the Competition Commission is supposed to intervene. Now, you are looking at another authority or existing authority? A point made by a large BJP state was how many items among thousands are we going to chase? In other words, it will be cherry-picking resulting in inspe ctor raj. Is this the GST we want?
The Centre has said it will be an enabling provision.
The minute you enable yourself, you open the gate for potential inspector raj by an authority that has not yet been defined in the law.This clause was introduced by Malaysia and it has failed.
What about dual control and what is the solution?
The empowered committee came to a unanimous decision presented to the Union FM (Arun Jaitley) in Kolkata and again in Delhi. The consensus was that below Rs 1.5 crore, states should continue to look after all of the business, including goods, deemed goods and services. The central bureaucracy , especially the Central Board of Excise and Customs has 86,000 tax personnel, while the states have 2.65 lakh. The underlying political issue is one of federalism. There is a feeling that if there is dual control, and if the Centre has a say below Rs 1.5 crore, it will end up with the central offices in sub-divisions, who knows even lower than sub-division level.
What about tax rates, have officers been able to categorise products?
A call also has to be taken on the nature of the product. The question is who is going to take the call?
For how many items? You are talking about many thousands of items… Not a single meeting has taken place on fitment of products.
When is the earliest we can expect GST?
The approach of the central bureaucracy will have to undergo some change. In case of dual control, in the case of IGST, both of them have been objected to by the central bureaucracy . Six meetings have been postponed on the topic of dual control.
You are not committing to a date…
I would not commit on a date. I would not commit on a date till we have answers to these questions.
Is July feasible if issues are resolved within a month?
Does it appear to you that in a month what remains to be settled will be settled? That will be magical. You can have a sub-optimal, truncated GST with draconian clauses, inspector raj thrown around. Is that what the nation has betted on GST?
There is criticism that you are holding up GST because of political issues -demonetisation and arrest of your colleagues?
When we ventured we knew that the nation will take a hit on tax collections… That is the reason we asked for compensation. At that time there was no other economic hit in the picture and then comes demonetisation. Can the economy take two hits simultaneously? We found cesses in the GST Council which will go into a fund. How much? Rs 55,000 crore. Tomorrow, if it is Rs 85,000 crore where will it come from? The Centre has promised nothing. Why can’t the Centre come out and say we will give it from Consolidated Fund of India?
There is criticism that you are holding up GST because of political issues -demonetisation and arrest of your party colleagues?
When we ventured we knew the nation will take a hit on tax collections, particularly states. That is the reason we asked for compensation. At that time there was no other economic hit in the picture and then came demonetisation. Can the economy take two hits simultaneously? We found cesses in the GST council that will go into a fund.How much? Rs 55,000 crore.Tomorrow, if it is Rs 85,000 crore where will it come from? The Centre has promised nothing. Why can’t the Centre ay that we will give it from the Consolidated Fund of India?
Criticing the governments move to demonetise old Rs 500/1,000 notes, Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Thursday said India could lose as much as Rs 4.7 lakh crore in its GDP.
The old high denomination notes were demonetised from November 9. Since then long queues are being witnessed at bank branches and outside ATMs for cash withdrawal.
“Just imagine for Rs 400 crore of supposedly fake money, according to the government itself, you kill or demonetise over Rs 14.5 lakh crore or may be Rs 15 lakh crore.
“I mean what kind of policy is this. Another serious question, we recently saw some new fake money, I am told according to reports. What does this mean. This is horrendous,” the West Bengal minister said.
Calling demonetisation “the biggest scam that is about to happen”, Dr Mitra said it will provide no gain, but only acute pain.
“If these figures (deposits of old notes in banks) are right because what it seems to me is if all the money comes back there was not enough black money… This has two serious implications. One, it could be that the government was purely ignorant because it does not consult anybody…or they have in effect facilitated some people from converting black into white, effectively ending up with no RBI surpluses,” he said.
Dr Mitra also slammed the Centre for trying to enforce cashless economy without preparing grounds for it. “Doesn’t the PM know 86% people have no means to go to cashless economy? 92% villages are unbanked as per RBI figures. There are 21000 unorganised mandis in the country, 383 lakh unorganised units in MSME, which obviously use cash. A major part of any big economy is in cash. To move them into cashless economy is a major task. This cannot be done by destabilising the economy,” he said.
The Bengal Finance Minister, who is also the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST, said, “The whole tax architecture will have to change, which is a huge challenge in the form of destabilisation. Can we not move GST a little bit on so that when the economy stabilises (and) people come back to normal living conditions, you bring in another disruption?”
কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের হঠকারী নোটবাতিলের সিদ্ধান্তের সমালোচনা করে বাংলার অর্থমন্ত্রী আমিত মিত্র বৃহস্পতিবার বলেন, এই তুঘলকি সিদ্ধান্তের ফলে দেশের জিডিপির ক্ষতি হবে চার লক্ষ ৭০ হাজার কোটি টাকা।
৮ই নভেম্বর ৫০০ ও ১০০০ টাকার নোট বাতিল করার পর থেকে আজ অবধি প্রতি এটিএম ও বাঙ্কের বাইরে সুদীর্ঘ লাইন দেখা যাচ্ছে টাকা তোলার জন্য।
“ভেবে দেখুন, কেন্দ্রীয় সরকার আনুমানিক ৪০০ কোটি টাকা নকল নোটের জন্য সাড়ে ১৪ বা ১৫ লক্ষ কোটি টাকা বাতিল করল। এটা কি ধরনের সিদ্ধান্ত?” তিনি আরও বলেন যে পরিস্থিতি খুবই ভয়াবহ।
অমিত মিত্র বলেন নোট বাতিল দেশের সব থেকে বড় কেলেঙ্কারি যার ফলে জনসাধারনের অপরিসীম কষ্ট ছাড়া আর কিছুই লাভ হল না।
“যে সংখ্যক পুরোনো নোট বাঙ্কে ফিরে এসেছে, সেই সংখ্যাটি যদি যথাযথ হয়, তার থেকে দুটি ব্যাপার বোঝা যায়। প্রথম, কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের কাছে এই ব্যাপারে কোনও তথ্যই ছিল না, কারন, তারা কাওর সঙ্গে কোনও আলোচনাই করেননি। অথবা, তারা কিছু মানুষকে কালো টাকা সাদা করার সুযোগ করে দিল যে কারনে রিজার্ভ বাঙ্কের কাছে কোনও অধিক টাকা জমা পড়ে নি।”
আমিত মিত্র ক্যাশলেস ইকোনমির ব্যাপারেও কড়া সমালোচনা করে বলেন, কোনও প্রস্তুতি না নিয়েই সরকার ক্যাশলেস ইকোনমির ওপর জোর দিচ্ছেন। “প্রধানমন্ত্রী কি জানেন না যে ৮৬ শতাংশ মানুষের কাছে ক্যাশলেস ইকোনমির সামর্থ নেই। রিজার্ভ বাঙ্কের নথি অনুযায়ী ৯২ শতাংশ গ্রামে বাঙ্ক নেই। দেশে ২১০০০ অসংগঠিত মান্ডি আছে। ৩৮৩ লক্ষ অসংগঠিত ক্ষুদ্র ও মাঝারি শিল্প প্রতিষ্ঠান আছে যারা পুরোপুরি ভাবে নগদ টাকায় লেনদেন করেন। এই দেশের সিংহভাগ ব্যাবসাই চলে নোটের ওপর। এই সমস্তকে ক্যাশলেস ইকোনমির দিকে নিয়ে যাওয়া একটি বিশাল কাজ, দেশের অর্থনীতির মেরুদণ্ড ভেঙে সেদিকে এগোনো যায়না,” আমিত মিত্র বলেন।
বাংলার অর্থমন্ত্রী, যিনি অর্থমন্ত্রীদের জিএসটি বিষয়ক এম্পাওয়ার্ড কমিটির চেয়ারম্যানও বটে, আরও বলেন, “জিএসটি লাগু করতে গেলে দেশের কর পরিকাঠামো নতুন করে সাজাতে হবে। নোট বাতিলের জন্য দেশের অর্থনীতি ইতিমধ্যেই সংকটে। তাই, আমরা কি কিছুদিন পরে জিএসটি লাগু করতে পারি না যখন দেশের অর্থনীতি স্বাভাবিক অবস্থায় ফিরে আসবে?”
“Only an authoritarian government can calmly cause such misery to people,” said Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen on the government’s demonetisation move. Concurring with this thought Amit Mitra, Finance Minister of Bengal said no democracy with a money market has withdrawn 86 percent money from the market.
Dr Mitra said FMCG sales have fallen by 35-40 percent. About 70 percent of secondary steel plants in Bengal are not working after demonetisation. India is seeing recessionary tendency due to this move, he added. It will take six months for the government to remonetise the economy, Dr Mitra said. Economists have also agreed that gross domestic product (GDP) will decline by 100-300 bps due to demonetisation.
Joining the crusade against the currency ban, Dr Mitra said the government was not prepared to implement this scheme. Due to the cash clean-up, informal sector in all states is in deep trouble, he said. On deposits made in Jan Dhan account, he said for political purposes government had leaked that West Bengal ranked number one when on the contrary, the state is ranked number 10.
Talking about the Income Tax Amendments Bill announced by the government on Monday, the economist said the government has admitted its failure by introducing an amnesty scheme for the black marketeers.
Dr Mitra, who is also the Chairman of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Panel, said the indirect tax regime is the biggest fiscal reform in the country and it not a tax rate issue. Since the roll-out of the demonetisation scheme, there are serious concerns over GST rules. The scheme is a second whammy for the states, much bigger than GST process, Dr Mitra said.
The chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers, Dr Amit Mitra, said GST rates fixed on Thursday were a great victory for Bengal and other states. He also pointed out that the rates -0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% -would not have any inflationary impact on the common man.
Bengal is likely to gain from the GST regime as the cess on coal will continue for now, along with the ones on primary education and rural development. Both education and rural development cess are linked with petroleum products, which is not under GST now.
Bengal earns a revenue of Rs 700 crore from coal cess and Rs 500 crore from the two others. The state now has a combination of ad valorem cess of 25% on the value of coal production and a royalty of Rs 5.50-7 per tonne, depending on the grade of coal.
Dr Mitra said that all states fought for 0% GST on grain, though a 6% rate was initially proposed on this. “There would have been inflationary pressure due to this. In a state like West Bengal, there is no VAT on foodgrain, so we all fought for 0% rate on it,“ he said.
The minister also argued that minimum rate of 5% -down from the original 6% -was fixed on the insistence of states. “We protested against 6% minimum rate and brought it down to 5%. For industry , even 1% is huge and can have inflationary impact.The highest slab is also kept at 28% as we were against any slab beyond 30%, which Value Added Tax has,“ Dr Mitra added.
Elaborating on the nittygritty of the new regime, Dr Mitra said revenue officials of different states would together decide on items for the standard category of 12% and 18%, keeping in mind that inflation had to be kept in check.
বিভিন্ন রাজ্যের অর্থমন্ত্রীদের নিয়ে গঠিত জিএসটি কমিটির চেয়ারম্যান তথা বাংলার অর্থমন্ত্রী মাননীয় ডঃ অমিত মিত্র বলেন, জিএসটির যে হার নির্ধারিত হয়েছে সেটি বাংলা ও অন্যান্য রাজ্যের জন্য একটি বড় জয়। ০, ৫, ১২, ১৮, ২৮ শতাংশ হার সাধারণ মানুষের জন্য কোনও সমস্যা সৃষ্টি করবে না।
প্রাথমিকভাবে খাদ্যশস্যের ওপর ৬ শতাংশ কর বসানোর প্রস্তাব থাকলো সব রাজ্যই ০ শতাংশ করের দাবি তোলে। ডঃ অমিত মিত্র বলেন, “খাদ্য শস্যের ওপর ৬ শতাংশ সেস বসলে মূল্যবৃদ্ধির পরিস্থিতি সৃষ্টি হাত, তাই আমরা সকলেই ০ শতাংশের দাবি তুলি। বাংলার মত রাজ্যে খাদ্যশস্যের ওপর কোনো ভ্যাট বসানো হয়নি।”
তিনি আরও বলেন যে সর্বনিম্ন জিএসটি হার ৬ থেকে কমিয়ে ৫ শতাংশ করার পেছনেও রাজ্যদের ভূমিকা ছিল। শিল্পের জন্য ১ শতাংশ করও মূল্যবৃদ্ধি সৃষ্টি করতে পারে। সর্বোচ্চ হার ২৮ শতাংশ রাখা হয় কারণ আমরা ৩০ শতাংশের চেয়ে বেশি করের বিরোধী; ভ্যাটের ক্ষেত্রেও তাই ছিল।
জিএসটির যে চারটি কর শ্রেণী বা স্ল্যাব ধার্য করা হয়েছে, তার কোনটাতে কোন দ্রব্য থাকবে এবার বিভিন্ন রাজ্যের সচিবরা আলোচনার মাধ্যমে ঠিক করবেন বলেও জানান ডঃ অমিত মিত্র।
