The Trinamool Congress and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will boycott the midnight programme at the Parliament House to celebrate implementation of GST on June 30.
India’s biggest indirect tax reform is set for a roll-out on July 1.
Pointing out that her party was deeply concerned about its implementation, Banerjee in her Facebook account said the new tax regime was “another epic blunder of the Centre” after demonetisation.
“We are deeply concerned about GST implementation. After demonetisation this unnecessary disastrous hurry is another epic blunder of the Centre,” Banerjee wrote.
All states and union territories (UTs), except Jammu & Kashmir, have passed the State GST Act. Kerala and West Bengal are the two states that have issued an ordinance to approve the SGST Act, while all other states and UTs have passed it in their respective legislative assemblies.
Infrastructure not in place
According to the Chief Minister, her party is not against GST but is objecting to the “ill-planned” roll-out of the tax regime.
The infrastructure for rolling out GST is still not in place. Moreover, the business community, especially, the small and medium ones, are “scared and confused”.
“Our repeated suggestions to take some more time to properly implement GST have fallen (to) deaf ears. The entire business community, especially the small and medium ones, are scared and confused,” Banerjee claimed.
Essential commodities such as medicines are not available in many places and prices of various commodities are rising for lack of clarity and mismanagement, she pointed out as examples of the confusion.
A three-day strike declared by the Textile Industries of India has been stated as one such instance.
Small business entities are not yet ready with the basic requirements like invoice, accounting system, IT system, etc.
“Another piece of evidence of unpreparedness comes from the fact that the ‘Return Form’ had to be simplified for the first 6 months as all systems are not in place,” she alleged adding that the e-Way system has not been put in place and the state governments have been asked to run their own systems as a stopgap arrangement.
U-Turn
Accusing the BJP-led government of doing a U-turn, Banerjee said that BJP – during its stint as the Opposition – had initially strongly opposed GST for over seven years and suddenly did a somersault on coming to office.
“We feel, at least six months will further be necessary to notify all rules and procedures and give enough time to the stakeholders, particularly the Small and Medium Enterprises to successfully implement the GST,” Banerjee said. Failing this, implementation of GST will lead to a chaotic situation for which the Centre should be held responsible, she further added.