Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Raghavji today said his government would strongly oppose goods and service tax (GST), scheduled to be effective from April next year by terming it as an anti-populist approach of the central government.
“With the implementation of GST, prices of all commodities will flare up. We strongly oppose this move. The value-added tax (VAT) has been implemented properly, switching over to a new system will not be possible for the state. The rate of GST of 8 per cent will put an additional financial burden on the state exchequer. The Centre is also not eager to share the service tax with the states. Only those nations have GST that have not adopted service tax separately,” he said.
The state has already communicated to the Centre about its move.
“Consumption of services in a poor nation like India or a very poor state like ours is comparatively lower than that of developed nations,” the minister said.
The state has produced few more logics to corroborate its move against GST. The state needs two years to switch over to GST, an integrated central excise tax and service tax system at manufacturing level so that exact revenue receipts can be estimated. To make the system more transparent and effective, the state needs computerised system for electronic clearing system so that it could also have constitutional rights to levy tax.
