Slamming Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao over his charge that the Centre was taking unilateral decisions on GST, the BJP today said he could not blame the Modi government as all the decisions related to the new tax system were taken collectively.
"As a member of the GST Council, his (Chandrasekhar Rao) government has supported the GST Bill and its tax brackets at several GST Council meetings. His party and the government has passed and ratified the GST Bill both at the state legislature and also supported it in both the houses of Parliament," BJP's Telangana unit spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said in a statement.
The BJP leader questioned how the CM could now blame the central government for the GST tax rates, when all decisions on GST are collectively taken with voting rights of every state.
Objecting to Centre's decision to reduce the tax rate on public works from 18 per cent to 12 per cent, the chief minister yesterday threatened that the state government would move the court against the Centre. The state has sought reduction of tax on ongoing projects to five per cent.
"CM KCR's empty threat that he will go to court only highlights his government's lack of fundamental knowledge on the issue, with which he is trying to attack the central government. His government cannot sue the Centre on this issue," Krishna Saagar maintained.
"How can the CM sue himself and his own government? His government is a party to all the decisions the GST Council has taken and his state representative is a signatory to all resolutions at the GST council inclusive of the Tax rates fixation," the BJP leader said.
"The BJP also wonders why KCR is being an advocate for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors. Business enterprises know how to protect their interests in the wake of new indirect tax regime. It's not the job of a chief minister to take up lobbying for lowering their taxes or increasing their profit margins," he said.
"BJP doesn't believe that there's any loss to the state exchequer with GST implementation in reference to the ongoing projects. All the numbers being projected as loss to the state are purely fictitious calculations," he claimed.
"BJP believes that the clamor over this issue by CM KCR and the TRS government is pointless and it also raises suspicion on their special interests," he added.
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