 "GST's biggest opponent goes, but it's too late now")
Former Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Raghavji may have been the strongest opponent of the Goods & Services Tax (GST), but his resignation from the post today might not give a major push to the proposed indirect tax reform in the current circumstances.
Some senior state and Union government functionaries, Business Standard spoke to, said Raghavji has resigned at a time when the Centre has already realised that the introduction of GST is not possible in the tenure of the current United Progressive Alliance government.
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Senior BJP leaders said that Raghavji had already decided not to contest state assembly elections due later this year as he wanted to retire.
Senior BJP leaders said that Raghavji had already decided not to contest state assembly elections due later this year as he wanted to retire.
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“His resignation will not have any impact on GST because there will be assembly election in Madhya Pradesh in the next three months and Raghavji had already announced that he was no longer interested in electoral politics,” said a senior BJP leader who has worked with the former finance minister for long.
Finance ministry officials also agreed that despite opposition from states like Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, GST negotiations had already moved forward to some extent as a broad consensus was reached between the Centre and majority of the states on some of the issues.
“Definitely when some key people leave it has an impact. Possibly, the discussions on GST may be a bit smoother now but it is not likely to help early rollout of GST,” said a finance ministry official.
Raghavji was the senior most finance minister in the Empowered Committee (EC) of State Finance Minister. He will now have to resign from EC, which lost its Chairman in Sushil Modi last month after BJP-JD (U) split in Bihar. Both Modi and Raghavji were considered to be finance ministers with a good understanding of GST and were always regular at EC meetings unlike some of their other counterparts.
Officials said another reason why Raghavji’s absence in EC meetings may not make much difference to GST is that officials in Madhya Pradesh government are also not in favour of the government model.