Mamata Banerjee opposes GST, state finance min to go to council

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday at an administrative meeting in South 24 Parganas district said she was extremely annoyed by the present Goods and Services Tax (GST) proposals and would go to any extent to oppose it in the present format.

"I have asked the state finance minister Dr Amit Mitra and Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee to send a letter to the Union Finance Ministry telling them in details about our objections in terms of accepting the implementation of GST the way it is at the moment," she said.

She added that after demonetization, GST too would cause a huge negative impact on the economy. "I was the first to oppose demonetization, and see it has already slowed down GDP by 2 per cent," she said.

Dr Mitra would be attending the meeting of GST council on June 3 in New Delhi. Sources said that he would voice the state's concern over GST at the meeting.

During the budget session, Parliament had passed all the four bills related to GST. States will now have to ratify the state-GST legislation to roll out the new tax. While 22 state have so far passed the S-GST Bill, others have time till June first week.

Dr Mitra said that the chief objections of the Bengal government on GST was the Centre's decision to levy GST items such as shoes, wigs and vernacular cinema. "Not only Bengal, but many industrial sectors including both the manufacturing and services sector, have expressed their objections to the present format of GST which is all set to roll out on July 1," Dr Mitra said.