The chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Punjab on Thursday raised concerns over delay in the release of GST revenue and other funds by the Centre to the states, saying it was adversely affecting their functioning.
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath criticised the GST Council observing that it has no intellectual understanding of the ground situation.
He said that as most of the BJP-ruled states sign on dotted lines at the GST Council meetings.
"GST council consists of states. The states are falling in line with the central government because they may be run by one party. If they are few states and rest are being run by one party then they come to sign on dotted lines. It is pre-determined. There is no engagement. There is no intellectual understanding of the situation. It's all in theories. All on paper. We must recognise and we cannot shut our eyes to this," he said while speaking at the 'India Economic Forum' meeting.
Nath said the GST is not being executed properly and several amendments were being made in quick succession.
"I don't think in history of the world, there has been so many amendments in a single policy," he said adding that "it was rolled out in a manner that the central government was not prepared for it and they had not taken all facts into consideration. If it was very good thing since beginning, why did you need these plethora of amendments?
Sharing similar views, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said it was told to them that GST collections would be distributed among states every month, but that "we are told [it would be] every quarter and then it is every 5 months".
"Now for our expenditure, we have to borrow money. This is very sad thing that is happening," he said.
Under the GST regime, the centre government is mandated to share the revenue collected as Integrated GST (IGST) with the states and also compensate them towards loss of revenue as per the provisions of the Compensation Act.
The GST collection in September declined to Rs 91,916 crore, as against Rs 98,202 crore in the preceding month, as per government data released on Tuesday.
"If there are 300 amendments that have gone in matter of few months, then there is something fundamentally wrong with it. The support that we are getting from Delhi is gradually dwindling, he added.
Nath also said that as wages for MGNREGA are coming after a delay of 5-6 months, it is affecting the health of rural economy.
He further said that transforming the Planning Commission into Niti Ayog is all cosmetic as the new body was only carrying out studies and not playing any executive role.
Speaking at the session, Telengana's Industries and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao said that the 'Make In India' campaign has not taken off.
"I think we need to take a lot of things from the Concurrent List and Centre List (of the Constitution) and give them to states. Stronger states will lead to stronger country.
"Prime Minister keeps talking about team India, cooperative federalism. We have heard a lot now. It is the time to start delivering on the promise and making things happen on the ground," he said.
