The CM's statement has come just days after the party boycotted the midnight session of the Parliament that was organised to announce the implementation of the GST from July 1.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh hailed the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on Tuesday and said it will benefit the debt-ridden state. Breaking ranks with the Congress high command once again, Singh reiterated his support for the GST while addressing the media for the first time since he was elected to power. The Bill was passed in the state's Assembly unanimously.
"We are totally for GST. The state of Punjab will benefit tremendously from it. The Vajpayee-led government had started the taxation reform by forming a committee that deliberated upon the GST model. It was taken forward by former PM Manmohan Singh, who proposed that the tax should be capped at 18 per cent," he said.
The CM's statement has come just days after the party boycotted the midnight session of the Parliament that was organised to announce the implementation of the GST from July 1.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had termed the reform "half-baked" and had hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government for rolling it out "without planning, foresight, and institutional readiness". Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had gone even further, terming it "an imperfect tax that will usher in a long period of turbulence".
Maintaining, however, that Punjab's crippled finances would improve with the GST, Singh said: "No one is opposed to it. It is a progressive tax. Congress's objection is on account of the multiple tax brackets and the cap rate of over 40 per cent, which should not have exceeded 18 per cent."
He further said that the state's unpaid liabilities amounted to Rs 13,039 crore, while its debt had gone up from Rs 51,155 crore in 2007 to Rs 182,183 crore in 2017.
Earlier, the state's Finance Minister Manpreet Badal had also hailed GST as one of the biggest tax reforms in the country. He had said Punjab was looking at its introduction with a lot of hope. "We are a consumption-based state and expect a 14 per cent growth in revenue in the next five years, which will help bail out the state," Badal had said.
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