Amit Mitra said GST council needs course correction
GST Council needs a course correction to restore a consensus-based approach in decision making, West Bengal finance, and planning minister Amit Mitra told union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday.
Mitra’s concern that the GST Council, the only federal body with lawmaking and taxation powers, has become almost toxic, comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Centre-state partnership was instrumental in policy-making during the pandemic.
In a letter to Sitharaman on Wednesday, Mitra pointed out that meetings of the Council have become acrimonious, vexing and almost toxic with erosion of mutual trust that had held fast between the Centre and states since the inception of the Council. Mitral also referred to instances in the past where the Central government and states have accepted each others’ suggestions on important issues such as setting the threshold for GST registration.
