Trust deficit was the cause of opposition: Sushil Modi

“BJP as a party was never opposed to GST, if it was, I would not have been heading the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers,” said Sushil Modi, senior BJP leader.

Modi, who was Bihar’s Finance Minister, was heading the panel from 2011, replacing Asim Dasgupta, who had resigned following defeat of Left-Front government in West Bengal.

Speaking to

BusinessLine Modi said, “the period which P Chidambaram, who was the Finance Minister under the UPA regime then, has referred to during the discussions on Constitution Amendment Bill to enable GST regime in the country, I was the Chairman of the State Finance Ministers Committee. It was not a question of opposing GST, but there definitely was trust deficit which States had on the Centre.”

Concerns and issues were not only raised by the BJP ruled States, but other States too, he added. For example, Haryana and Punjab were worried about purchase tax, Bihar about entry tax, and Maharashtra about Octroi, Modi pointed out.

“States were worried about the Central Sales Tax compensation which they were supposed to get, but was getting delayed. This was leading to trust deficit,” he said.

Building consensus

Asked what has changed since then, Modi said, “Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, in last two months has been speaking to every Chief Minister, talking to Opposition including Congress in an effort to build consensus, which was not done during the previous regime, though Congress claims GST as its baby.”

When demitting office in June 2013, Modi had written to the then Finance Minister Chidambaram for for early payment of CST compensation to States to build the trust between States and the Centre to ensure early roll out of the GST, which has missed several deadlines.