Chidambaram seconds Jaitley on delayed over flawed GST bill

New Delhi, Dec 20: Former fince minister P.Chidambaram on Sunday said that he agreed with his successor, Arun Jaitley that a delayed Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill is better than a “flawed” one, “Agree with FM @arunjaitley. A delayed GST is better than a flawed one. Present GST Bill is flawed,” Chidambaram said in a tweet. “Congress’ three weighty objections & the bill could be passed. One per cent tax is anyway dead. Scrap the provision,” he said in another tweet. The Congress is asking for a cap on the GST rate to be included in the constitution amendment bill, as also scrapping the proposed one percent additiol tax on inter-state movement of goods on grounds that this would have a cascading inflatiory effect on prices. “Rate cap can be provided in the bill through skillful drafting. Talk to the opposition,” Chidambaram said.

He also tweeted that “No state is opposed to independent dispute resolution mechanism. Set it up.” Jaitley had made his assertion at industry chamber FICCI’s annual meeting last week. At an interaction with industry chambers here last week, Jaitley said the Congress’ precondition that the cap of 18 percent GST be placed in the constitutiol amendment was difficult to accept because it would make raising taxes for exceptiol reasons very difficult. “Can tariffs be cast in stone? Suppose we need to increase some taxes, we’d have to amend the constitution,” he said. “Give up the rigidness on constitutiolly prescribed (GST) tariffs, which can become an albatross around the necks of future generations,” Jaitley exhorted the Congress on Saturday. (IANS)