Ahead of a meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Thursday, the Congress said petroleum products and real estate should be brought within the ambit of GST and plans to introduce a new billing system for goods that are transported from one State to another deferred.
At a press conference at the Congress headquarters, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said the stakeholders and as the GST software modules were not yet ready to switch over to e-way billing — a new electronic system to facilitate the movement of goods between States — from the proposed rollout date of February 1. “We are not against the introduction of e-way bills, but it should not be introduced without adequate preparedness. There will be chaos and negativity if it is introduced in a hurry,” Mr. Badal said.
He also said GST had led to a lower economic growth rate, an “alarming drop in revenues” for States, high retail inflation for the common man and compliance complexities for the taxpayers.
The Congress leader said GST revenues were constantly declining with the latest numbers for November showing collections of ₹80,800 crore. “Even these numbers do not capture the full impact of transitional credits that will be available for the next few months as the last date of filing of the relevant returns was nearly the end of December,” he said.
