Citing Centre's Data, Ex Bengal Minister Says Rs 1.25 Lakh Crore GST Fraud

Amit Mitra was speaking at a national conference on the success of GST at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in Kolkata.

Predicting a grim future for the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Economist and former West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said the environment at the GST council had become 'toxic'. Mr Mitra was speaking at a national conference on the success of GST at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in Kolkata.

Narrating how the functioning of the GST council has changed in five years, since the new tax regime came into existence in 2017, Mr Mitra said, "There was an issue of taxation for 12 km offshore. Eight states governed by different political parties came together, and I remember Nitin Patel, the then Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat, he came to me and said, Dr Mitra, you take the lead, and I will support you. He was BJP. Then you had BJP, you had Congress in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, CPI(M) in Kerala, all political parties governing states along the shore had common interest. I remember Mr Jaitley took a break, we sat together and said sir, we will not let this pass so that your Centre can take over the entire taxation process. What is interesting is that it was a collegial environment, a consensus environment."

Mr Mitra said Arun Jaitley, then Finance Minister, agreed and said he got a sense of the house. "He told the central government officials flat on their face, withdraw this. This will remain with the states. That atmosphere has gone. Now the environment in the council is majoritarian. It started when I was there. In fact, at times, toxic. And, at times, acrimonious. The saddest part is sometimes conclusions are not reached," he added.

The GST Council is the only institution in the country today which is totally federalist, Mr Mitra further argued, saying ministers of 31 states and union territories are part of the council, chaired by the Finance Minister of India.