Manpreet: Centre was ‘ill-prepared’ to implement GST

NEWDELHI: Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Tuesday alleged that the slashing of GST on a host of items was a “patchwork” for the “ill-prepared” introduction of the tax.

He demanded that petrol and electricity be also brought under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The GST council in its 31st meeting on Wednesday slashed tax rates for 23 commonly-used items. The rates have been reduced from 18% to 12 and 5% respectively. “Reducing the taxes is just a patchwork for the ill-prepared introduction of GST as there was no conceptual clarity in the first place. This meeting was just a patchwork.

“Our concern is if we had to copy, it should have been done with clear concepts,” the Congress leader told reporters .

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has always called the GST a “Gabbar Singh Tax”.

The GST was hastily implemented without any preparation, he said. “The concepts were not clear, stakeholders were not

Reducing taxes is just a patchwork for the ill-prepared introduction of GST as there was no conceptual clarity in the first place. MANPREET SINGH BADAL, finance minister, Punjab

consulted and there was no technological preparedness. We have been demanding that filing of GST returns be simplified, and petroleum and electricity be brought under its ambit,” said the Punjab finance minister.

“If GST is about having ‘one nation, one tax’, such a big sector of the economy cannot be exempted,” he said.