Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her party TMC will not attend the GST roll-out programme on June 30 midnight as she flayed the “unnecessary hurry” to roll it out.
The TMC supremo termed the GST roll-out as another “epic blunder” by the Centre. “Our Parliamentary Party has decided not to attend the 30th June, 2017 midnight programme at Parliament House to celebrate GST, as a mark of protest,” she said.
“We are deeply concerned about GST implementation. After #demonetisation, this unnecessary disastrous hurry is another epic blunder of the Centre”, she said on Facebook.
“We have been for GST from the beginning but are very worried now with the way the Central Government is going ahead with the implementation”, she said.
“Our repeated suggestions to take some more time to properly implement GST have fallen on deaf ears. The entire business community, especially the small and medium ones, are scared and confused. “Only 60 hours are left before this ill-planned launch and no one knows for sure what’s happening!”, she said.
“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 said.
Banerjee said, “We have always been fighting for maintaining the federal structure of the country, even if Bengal at times was the lone voice and conscience of the GST Council”.
She said, “There are almost 20 different taxes in the present tax regime and we felt that one single tax and integration of all markets across the country will provide big relief to all”.
Having a dig at the BJP, she said, “The current ruling party at the Centre had initially strongly opposed GST for over 7 years and suddenly did a somersault on coming to office as a champion of GST”.
Banejee said that the economy is not yet ready to face the GST from July 1. She expressed hope that the voices of the people and businesses will be heard by the Centre. (PTI)
