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West Bengal does not support GST in its current form, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.
Claiming that the GST Bill in its present format does not support the “unorganised sector”; she pointed out that her cabinet colleague and State Finance Minister, Amit Mitra, has already taken up the matter with the Centre.
India’s biggest indirect tax reform, the Goods and Services Tax regime, is said to be rolled out July 1 onwards.
“We (Bengal) are against GST in the current form as it does not support the unorganised sector,” Banerjee said during an administrative meeting in the South 24 Parganas district today. “Amit Mitra has taken up the matter with the Centre and we have shot-off letters,” she further added.
In fact, the State Finance Minister, Amit Minister, had a few days back claimed that the country was not ready for implementation of GST and imposition of the tax regime should be deferred.
Meanwhile, Kolkata ranks third, after cities like Ahmedabad and Mysuru in terms of assess registering for GST enrolment. Enrolments for transition to GST are through the Central Board of Excise and Customs for both central excise assessees and service tax-payers. Another section of assessees register with the State Directorate of Commercial Taxes for VAT benefits.
Nearly 91 per cent of the service tax assesses in Kolkata or 24,200 have enrolled for transition to the GST network. There are 26,616 registered assesses.Similarly, 2514 out of 2961 assesses (or 85 per cent) registered with the central excise have opted for enrolment under GST network.
According to data available with CII, VAT migration in West Bengal stands at nearly 87 per cent. This means, over 17,000 units have registered for transition to the GST regime.
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