CHENNAI: Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu lashed out at former Union minister P. Chidambaram for his double standard on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and alleged that Chidambaram “lacked common sense.” Making it very clear that the Congress party was never opposed to the idea of GST in Parliament, he said “As the then finance minister, Chidambaram had said that the country is ready to embrace GST. Now, as opposition leader supporting the GST he had said in the Rajya Sabha that there can be no such thing as perfect a bill as the GST.”
“But, he (Mr Chidambaram) wrote an article for an English daily saying the bill is not perfect. He is a very learned person. I don’t want to join in a debate with him. I don’t have that much knowledge also. The only thing is many people in the country like me do not have that much level of knowledge. They don’t understand him and so don’t bother about him because they have common sense only,” Mr Venkaiah said, tearing into the Congress leader for his alleged double standard on the GST.
Speaking at a conference on MODI (Making of Developed India) and GST, held under the joint auspices of ICAI, South Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association, World Tamil Economic Foundation and Arma Medical Foundation, here on Sunday, Mr Venkaiah who also holds the Information and Broadcasting portfolio, said the GST is a good and simple tax regime. “When we found there were many flaws in the bills, many of them were fixed by addressing them,” he added.
Quoting Mr Chidambaram again, he said the Congress leader had gone on record saying the GST “is far too important legislation which will last for the next 100 years.” Pointing out that he was neither an expert in the economy nor on taxation, the minister fired another barb at Mr Chidambaram and others opposing the GST saying, “I am the only son of an ordinary farmer. So, I don’t have that much knowledge except common sense. Why all this? Why not one rate? There cannot be a single rate for now.”
