Abolish IGST to make tax system effective: Sisodia to Centre

NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday demanded the abolishing of the Integrated GST (IGST) by the Centre, saying Rs 1.81 lakh crore has accumulated in the IGST fund but the money is lying idle and is causing economic loss.

The Deputy Chief Minister also favoured bringing real estate within the fold of GST as that will help deal with black money and called for doing away the ‘inspector raj’ associated with the electronic way or e-way bill system.

Sisodia said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was first conceptualised as ‘one nation, one tax’ but with five tax slabs, it has become as one nation, several taxes.

He said he had opposed IGST from the beginning and had suggested sticking with only Central GST and State GST.

“I feel IGST is a bad idea. In last GST Council meeting, we got the figure of Rs 1,81,418 crore IGST which we have collected and is lying idle in an escrow account.

This is neither in the account of state government nor in a central government account. It’s not helping the central or state governments or the traders as it is just lying idle. It’s a loss to the economy,” the Deputy Chief Minister said at an Assocham programme in the Capital.

Under GST, the tax levied on consumption of goods or rendering of service is split 50:50 between the Centre and the state.

Such tax is known as Central-gst or CGST and Stategst or SGST.