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

By A Representative
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, 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

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

Food security? Gujarat govt puts more than 5 lakh ration cards in the 'silent' category

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.

Why Indo-Pak relations have been on 'knife’s edge' , hostilities may remain for long

By Utkarsh Bajpai* The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.

Lata Mangeshkar, a Dalit from Devdasi family, 'refused to sing a song' about Ambedkar

By Pramod Ranjan* An artist is known and respected for her art. But she is equally, or even more so known and respected for her social concerns. An artist's social concerns or in other words, her worldview, give a direction and purpose to her art. History remembers only such artists whose social concerns are deep, reasoned and of durable importance. Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was a celebrated playback singer of the Hindi film industry. She was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her popularity was unmatched. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other South Asian countries. In this article, we will focus on her social concerns. Lata lived for 92 long years. Music ran in her blood. Her father also belonged to the world of music. Her two sisters, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, are well-known singers. Lata might have been born in Indore but the blood of a famous Devdasi family...

'Batteries now cheap enough for solar to meet India's 90% demand': Expert quotes Ember study

By A Representative Shankar Sharma, Power & Climate Policy Analyst, has urged India’s top policymakers to reconsider the financial and ecological implications of the country’s energy transition strategy in light of recent global developments. In a letter dated April 10, 2026, addressed to the Union Ministers of Finance, Power, New & Renewable Energy, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and the Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, with a copy to the Prime Minister, Sharma highlighted concerns over India’s ambitious plans for coal gasification and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

Beyond Lata: How Asha Bhosle redefined the female voice with her underrated versatility

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The news of iconic Asha Bhosle’s ‘untimely’ demise has shocked music lovers across the country. Asha Tai was 92 years young. Normally, people celebrate a passing at this age, but Asha Bhosle—much like another legend, Dev Anand—never made us feel she was growing old. She was perhaps the most versatile artist in Bombay cinema. Hailing from a family devoted to music, Asha’s journey to success and fame was not easy. Her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, had already become the voice of women in cinema, and most contemporaries like Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and Noor Jehan had slowly faded into oblivion. Frankly, there was no second or third to Lata Mangeshkar; she became the first—and perhaps the only—choice for music directors and all those who mattered in filmmaking. Asha started her musical journey at age 10 with a Marathi film, but her first break in Hindustani cinema came with the film "Chunariya" (1948). Though she was not the first choice of ...

50 years of the Port of Spain miracle: The chase that redefined Indian cricket

By Harsh Thakor* Fifty years ago, India turned the tide to rewrite cricket history, rising from the depths of despair to a moment of enduring glory. Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad, is celebrated among cricket grounds for its poetic beauty. For India, it became a theatre of historic triumph. In 1976, it showed the cricketing world what it was made of.

Search This Blog