Congress to boycott GST event

The Narendra Modi-led government’s mastery in promoting and hard-selling GST doesn’t seem to extend to the political space: it has failed to persuade the Opposition Congress to join the gala event on Friday night to formally roll out the indirect tax regime.

The government has sent out nearly 155 invitations to Chief Ministers, leaders of political parties and senior officials from the Centre and the States to attend the event at Parliament’s Central Hall on June 30.

The letters, sent by Minister of State PMO Jitendra Singh, include a resolution by the Cabinet expressing its gratitude for helping to build a consensus on GST.

The Congress cited two reasons for its decision to boycott the event. First, no functions have been held at midnight in the Central Hall except the Independence Day celebrations in 1947, and its silver and golden jubilee programmes in 1972 and 1997.

Second, the party is upset with the Prime Minister’s and senior BJP functionaries’ “silence” over the growing attacks on minorities, Dalits and farmers.

It also pointed to protests by traders, weavers and artisans demanding that the GST implementation be put off.

The Congress, while claiming credit for GST, said more than 30 per cent of the revenue base has been kept out of the GST Bill. The party said the Bill is incomplete as petroleum, electricity, coal and real estate are out of the GST ambit.

Manmohan to skip session Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was to speak at the function, has now decided not to attend the gala event. The Congress took the decision after consulting other Opposition parties and after discussions within the top leadership.

Party top brass, including president Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, met here on Thursday morning. The decision was announced by Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad in the evening.

Besides the Congress, the Left parties and the Trinamool Congress will also not be present. CPI (M) and CPI MPs will not attend though there is no formal direction to boycott it. However, former West Bengal Finance Minister and senior CPI(M) leader Asim Dasgupta will attend: he was the first Chairman of the empowered committee of Finance Ministers that initiated the discussions of the GST.

Azad said previous functions held in the Central Hall at midnight were related to independence celebrations, and the Congress does not see why implementation of a taxation regime should be given such importance.

He also highlighted reports of alleged lynchings of minorities and Dalits. “Attacks against women have increased, particularly in BJP-ruled States,” he said. In the past three years of NDA rule, the internal security, border security and the performance of the economy had deteriorated, he claimed.

Congress’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma, said the government was “insulting” the freedom struggle by symbolically equating it with the implementation of a taxation regime. The UPA, which had brought in legislation such as right to work, right to education and right to food, had never sought to showcase it the way the Modi government does, he said.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Modi had opposed the GST for 10 years during the UPA regime, and was now trying to advocate it and calling it a “revolutionary law.”

Meanwhile, the GST Council will meet on Friday for a last-minute status check before the rollout of the new tax regime. A final structure to the Anti-Profiteering Authority may also be given. While rules for the authority, which will check price rise, have been notified, it is yet to be fully set up; nor have officials been appointed.

COMMENT NOW