The Tamil Nadu government should take immediate steps and also consider filing a case against the Central government to ensure the State gets its share of the GST, DMK president M.K. Stalin has said.
Mr. Stalin, in a statement on Saturday, said, while the Finance Ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry have met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to seek the release of their share of GST and compensation from August, the Tamil Nadu government has not even bothered to represent its case.
The DMK president said the BJP government at the Centre had promised and assured that if there were any losses due to the implementation of the GST regime, States’ losses for five years would be compensated.
“Till the time, [then Chief Minister] Jayalalithaa was alive, the AIADMK opposed the GST regime, but after Edappadi K. Palaniswami became the Chief Minister, he sent [Minister] D. Jayakumar to the midnight inauguration of the GST regime in Parliament. The following day the AIADMK even issued a statement that this was a historic step,” Mr. Stalin pointed out.
Recalling the Tamil Nadu government’s stand on the GST issue during the Governor’s address in January 2018, Mr. Stalin said the State had thanked the Centre for the new tax mechanism and also claimed that this would lead to the economic development of the State.
Mr. Stalin said when the Bill came up in the Assembly, he had cautioned the government to ask the Centre to send the GST scheme to a review committee as it would affect and take away the rights of the State.
“The AIADMK government is not bothered about the loss of ₹9,270 crore Tamil Nadu is incurring due to the GST regime. The government in the 2019-20 budget said around ₹5,909 crore of GST refunds is still pending,” he said. “What happened to these refunds? Have they been received? What is the total loss to the State due to the implementation of GST? How much has been received from the Centre? Why is the AIADMK government not coming clean on all these questions?,” Mr. Stalin asked.
He said may be the AIADMK was not bothered as they know this is the last time they will be in power. “So, they are thinking that let’s not get our posts which we got as a loan from the Central government into trouble,” Mr. Stalin charged and demanded that Mr. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam take immediate steps to ensure the GST refunds are sought from the Centre.
