Chennai: Tamil Nadu on Monday passed the GST bill amid stiff opposition and walkout by the DMK, which wanted the bill to be referred to the select committee to discuss the fears of traders and industrialists.
Replying to the suggestion of leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin to send the bill to the select committee, commercial taxes minister K.C. Veeramani said the GST council would discuss the complaints of all sections of people and rectify them. He pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi knew the concerns of states since he too had been a Chief Minister.
Finance minister D. Jayakumar said former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa wanted protection to state autonomy and the financial autonomy of the state. Both her concerns had been addressed since states could levy taxes on petrol and liquor. He said the new tax regime would lead to a rise of one per cent of GDP of the nation and would reduce the prices of commodities.
Explaining the reduction of prices, he said earlier several taxes including entry tax and sales tax were levied on goods and now it is replaced by a single tax. He said it would lead to reduction of prices of all the essential commodities.
Besides, the GST council is a permanent body of state finance ministers it could frequently discuss any anomalies and complaints and rectify them.
Earlier, raising the issue DMK member Anitha Radhakrishnan said the GST on food products like pickles and biscuits is high, besides that for readymade clothes, grinders, furniture, pens and pencils. Besides, the traders fear that the prices of many items would go up and wanted a discussion with the government.
The state government should form a committee to discuss and study the complaints of traders, industrialists, entrepreneurs and other sections of people.
He complained that there were several anomalies leading to confusion among traders and so it must be taken up as a pilot project for year before real implementation.
Congress member Vijayadharani too echoed the views of DMK and said the scheme should be pilot project for two years. The states would incur heavy losses and the compensation offered by the centre would not compensate the losses. IUML member Abu Bakkar too shared similar views.
