Centre betrays trust in GST shortfall pay, Mamata writes to PM
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in his government’s “betrayal of trust” by suggesting the states to borrow funds to meet their GST revenue shortfall. She described the Centre’s move to not compensate the states for the GST shortfall amid Covid- 19 pandemic “an act of subterfuge to undermine the trust reposed by the states in the spirit of cooperative federalism.”
In a letter to the PM, Ms Banerjee wrote, “I am deeply anguished by the GST imbroglio which tantamounts to a betrayal of the trust and moral responsibility of the Government of India towards the states, violating the very premise of federalism. This is a travesty and an abrogation of the fundamental basis on which the States gave up 70% of their taxing powers, including the entire VAT regime, to usher in the GST regime.”
She told him, “May I remind you that, not only you, as chief minister of Gujarat, opposed the implementation of GST on various grounds, but Late Shri Arun Jaitley also unambiguously and publicly stated, in December 2013, that the sole reason why BJP was opposing the GST implementation
is because BJP did not trust the then Government of India in honouring compensation of GST losses to the States! Today, his words are ringing in our ears as we are losing trust on the BJP Government in the Centre, in honouring its solemn. promise of fully compensating GST losses to the states.”
The Trinamul Congress supremo then added, “I sincerely urge you to intervene on this matter to rekindle the trust between States and the Centre at the GST Council — a trust that had held for over 3 years and 40 meetings of the Council, despite occasional differences on merits cutting across party Iines.”
“I on behalf of my state and all the States, sincerely urge you not to belie the trust between the states and the Centre on matters of GST which has been hailed world over as the finest example of cooperative federalism. I further urge you not to allow an insufferable blow to the federalist polity of our nation.”