When Gujarat under Modi, later under Anandiben Patel, called GST an "attack" on state financial autonomy

Even as the ruling NDA government has been charging the opposition, especially Congress, for seeking to roadblock implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) across India, facts suggest, Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief minister, and later his successor, Anandiben Patel, have taken strong exception GST till December 2014.
The Gujarat government made a written submission as late as December 11, 2014, seven months after Modi became Prime Minister, before the empowered committee of finance ministers. It opposed the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill introduced by Finance Ministe Arun Jaitley on three grounds:

that GST Bill is an attack on fiscal autonomy of the state;
that GST Bill will adverse impact state revenues, and the 122nd Constitutional Bill on GST brought by the Modi government does not address any of states’ concerns; and
that the implementation of GST would cause severe loss to a manufacturing state like and affect the ‘Make-in-India programme’.

The written submission said, “The states have time and again expressed their concerns … mainly about the fiscal autonomy and the adverse implications on the revenues of the state due to introduction of the GST regime.”
It stated, the new draft of the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill from the empowered committee failed to address “many of the concerns raised by the states have not been reflected in the draft”, adding, the states would “lose their fiscal autonomy”, in the same way as it happened after the introduction of the value added tax (VAT) in the place of sales tax.
Recalling that the Prime Minister had launched “the Make in India campaign”, the state government pointed towards how would Gujarat particularly lose: “In the GST regime, the abolition of central sales tax (CST) and the implementation of the destination principle would result in severe losses to manufacturing states that are also net exporting states.”
This was a continuation of what Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief minister had been saying between 2007 and 2014 to numerous empowered committee meetings of state finance ministers. In each of them, the state government opposed the constitutional amendment comprising GST Bill, describing it as against “the federal spirit of Constitution” as also the “rights of states to fiscal autonomy”.
On August 4, 2010, the state government said that the “constitutional amendment has come at a time when consensus is lacking even within the empowered committee”, as it “fundamentally alters powers of the states to levy and collect indirect taxes.”
It added, “The power to determine rate of taxes is a basic function of legislative body like Parliament or, as the case may be, State Legislature. Article 265 very clearly states that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law. Thus, provisions of proposed Article 279A runs counter to the existing provisions of Constitution.”
Disagreeing with “wide-ranging powers given to GST council”, the Modi government asserted, “These powers shall remain within legislative and administrative purview of State and cannot be ceded to the council as it will take away entire financial autonomy of the State.”
On September 20, 2010, it said, the “Gujarat government does not support the proposed constitutional amendment in its present form”, as it would “destablise balance source of revenue and duties between Centre and States and would adversely affect the financial health of states and deprive them of a very important means of governance.”
On October 29, 2010, it said, “The constitutional amendment in the present format put forth by the Government of India is not acceptable to Gujarat.” On February 11, 2011, the it said that “the new constitutional amendment draft proposed by the Government of India is retrograde in nature and completely against the tenets of fiscal federalism.”

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.

Search This Blog