Best time to bring in GST would be post 2019 election Swamy

Agreeing with West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra that the proposed roll-out of the goods and service tax (GST) is not fully prepared to be implemented in present form, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday said the best time to bring in GST would be after the 2019 election.

Talking to ANI, Swamy said GST in its present form is a disaster.

?I agree totally, GST at the present would be a disaster. And I have written to the Prime Minister urging him that there is no hurry in this matter and moreover the GST is an anti-national institution set up as a cyber brain of the GST by Mr. Chidambaram and I don?t see why we are continuing it because it is owned by foreigners and the foreigners will get access to all our data and this is absolutely against national interest. The Home Ministry is yet not given security clearance. And I therefore think that the best time to bring in GST would be after the 2019 election,? he said.

With the GST all set to come in play from July 1, Mitra on Tuesday said the Bill is not fully prepared to be implemented.

While addressing a press conference in Kolkata, Mitra said that and unless a solution is reached at on the GST, it will not be introduced in the West Bengal Assembly.

"GST is not fully prepared and ready, rules and forms not completed. July 1 must not be finalised for roll-out of GST. Until and unless a solution is reached at on GST, it will not be introduced in the state assembly," said Mitra.

The success of India's biggest tax reform hinges on a trouble-free show from the technology that will run it.

There will be much pressure on the GSTN or the goods and services tax network, the IT backbone of the landmark tax reform that promises to make India a uniform tax country.

The task won't be easy, considering the fact that GSTN, according to a Bloomberg report, will be processing as many as 3.5 billion invoices each month from July, with eight million direct taxpayers requiring to file up to 37 tax returns in a year.

However, the GST Network, the company providing IT backbone for GST rollout, has received as many as 160 applications from firms that have evinced interest in acting as GST Suvidha Providers.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)