Rising prices is one of the main concerns of housewives running their kitchens. Places of worship feeding pilgrims across the country feel that pinch no less. And one such place is the Golden Temple in Amritsar, where over a lakh of pilgrims have anything between one to three meals a day in a “langar” that is operational round the clock. What has pushed up the food cost here is the goods and services tax.
Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Bhatinda MP, is as rattled as anyone else in Punjab over the fact that the Golden Temple as well as other gurudwaras are paying GST on provisions being bought for round-the-clock community kitchens –langar—where all pilgrims are fed a blessed meal.
The minister first charged the Congress government in the state for the GST, and said they did not do anything to get exemptions for the gurudwaras under the GST regime. But soon, she realised she had barked up the wrong tree. For Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarender Singh had decided that the state will forgo its half of the GST.
On Thursday, the food processing minister met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to urge him to ask his deputy chief minister as well as Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Modi to waive the GST by taking up the matter at the GST Council that he heads.
Nitish Kumar has in true federal spirit promised to work for a consensus on the issue by conveying the sentiments of the Sikh community to the central government. Patna is home to the historical Patna Sahib gurudwara, and neither Nitish nor Sushil Modi can afford to be seen turning a deaf ear to Badal's request.
“It does not matter who gets the GST waived, and who actually waives it. The SGPC spends about a Rs 100 crore a year on feeding the congregation the traditional way. Now with GST, that has become needlessly costlier,” said the SGPC spokesperson, adding that this issue was above politics. He said the cost has not in any way diluted the langar tradition.