New Delhi: On the first anniversary of the launch of GST the Congress fielded former finance minister P Chidambaram to take on the government. Launching a scathing on the government Mr Chidambaram said that GST had raised the tax burden on the common man and become a “bad word” among the people. “The design, structure, infrastructure backbone, rate or rates and implementation of the GST (Goods and Services Tax) were so flawed that GST has become a bad word among business persons, traders, exporters and the common citizens,” he told reporters addressing a press conference in the national capital.
Underlining that the Congress was the original proponent of the GST and it was first proposed by the UPA in 2006, the four-time finance minister said experts should be given a free hand in overhauling the indirect tax structure. “Mr. Fixits have been at work in reforming the GST. As the original proponent of the GST, the Congress party hopes that the task of thoroughly overhauling the GST will be entrusted to experts,” he said.
The Congress also demanded that corrective measures should be taken immediately. The measures include reduction of multiple tax rates to five and then to three in a short frame. Also, GSTR Form-2 and GSTR Form-3 must be notified forthwith and ‘the temporary (and perhaps illegal) GSTR Form-3B must be withdrawn’.
Only one return must be required to be filed once in a quarter and the process of refund must be streamlined and refunds must be expedited, releasing blocked capital. The party has also demanded that petroleum products and electricity must be brought immediately under GST.
