Top businessmen sign petition for GST Bill

By Wednesday night, 50,029 people have supported the appeal posted on change.org. The supporters include top business leaders of the country such as HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories chairman Satish Reddy, Aditya Birla Group Financial Services CEO Ajay Srinivasan, CII president Sumit Mazu-mder among several others.

The petition was titled ‘Universal Appeal to Support GST’ filed on December 19. It said that the ongoing delay in implementation of GST is a matter of great concern. Recently, another industry body Assocham had called for a special session of Parliament for passing the Goods and Services Tax Bill, if it cannot be passed in the Winter Session.

“Even if a special session of Parliament is required or extension of the current session is needed, let the GST Amendment see the light of the day and the scheme roll out from the ensuing financial year,” said Mr Sunil Kanoria, newly-elected president of Assocham.

During the 2015-16 Budget, finance minister Arun Jaitley had annou-nced the government’s intention to roll out the GST regime from April 2016. However, with the Rajya Sabha not clearing the Bill, the government will not be able to meet this deadline.

Indirectly referring to Congress leader P. Chidambaram’s recent comments that it is better to wait for a perfect GST, the CII-initiated petition said: “It seems difficult to have an ideal GST at this precise moment, as the model has to be acceptable to all states. Consequently some of the sectors have been proposed to be kept out in the beginning and brought in later under GST. Everyone would have liked a perfect GST, but we cannot allow best to be the enemy of the good. At this point of time it is imperative to move forward with GST. It is the need of the hour to pass the Bill and implement GST without any further delay.”

Terming it as the country’s most significant tax transformation in decades, the petition claimed: “GST, when implemented, is expected to usher in a harmonised national market of goods and services and lead to a simplified, assessee-friendly tax administration system, which would be equally beneficial for customers and producers.”

The petition further said that GST has the potential to improve tax compliance, lower the overall tax rate in the country, dramatically improve ease of doing business and boost country’s GDP growth by one to two per cent.