Maharashtra government is holding a special three days session for ratifying the GST bill and amending state Acts in order to fulfill the requirements of proposed GST bill. Sudhir Mungantiwar tabled four bills that will address issues like goods and services produced, provided and consumed within the state, goods and services produced, provided or consumed between two or more states and compensation to the local self governments for five years in absence of octroi or LBT.
Opposition parties took this as an opportunity and came down heavily on various lacunas and the unpreparedness of the state government. Jayant Patil, former finance minister and NCP leader, resorted to pinching humour while exposing the short-comings in the GST bill.
He said, “People don't understand your planning. You have announced Rs 45,000 crore worth Samruddhi Corridor, Rs 1 lakh crore for bullet trains, Rs 27,000 crore for the Seventh Pay Commission. But from where are you getting the money for it when almost every sector is badly underperforming?” He added that the chief minister himself has admitted to Rs 400 crore scam in Toor procurement and the huge misappropriation in the Farm Ponds scheme. Jayant Patil took a dig at chief minister asking, “Uddhav Thackeray has alleged that there are robbers in the government. Is it a fact, Mr. CM?”
The Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis, while replying to the demand of loan waiver, had said, “We will give loan waiver if opposition parties give a guarantee that the farmer suicides will stop.” Jayant Patil retorted, “We will give written guarantee that the suicides will stop. Give loan waiver first.” He added, “The district co-op banks in the state has Rs 5000 crore in old currency, deposited by ordinary farmers. RBI has not exchanged it yet and the banks have to pay interest of Rs 48 crore on it. Do not ruin the farmers and their credit system.”
Earlier, Prithviraj Chavan, former chief minister said, “Government abolished LBT, without any foresight, to lure traders, but lost Rs 15,000 crore in just 30 months. This money would have come handy to compensate local self governments.” According to the GST Act, central government will reimburse the state for the loss of octroi to the local self governments, assuming an annual growth of 14 per cent. “What we object to is the fact that why is the state government going to compensate the loss at only 8 per cent when the centre will be paying 14 per cent more than the previous year?,” said Jayant Patil. This will cripple the infrastructure growth of the municipal corporations and the municipalities in the state, he said.
Prithviraj Chavan suggested that considering the lack of preparation, the implementation of GST should be deferred till September 2017. He said, “The staff is yet to be trained. The software is not yet ready and the IRS cadre is likely to protest. The Chartered Accountants in the state are not yet ready as every trader will have to file 37 different returns in an year.” He stressed the need to simplify the procedure of filing returns. Jayant Patil warned, “You will lose the benefits of GST if you do not prepare well in advance. The government should not end up losing revenue and creating chaos.”
