We had to fight for zero tax on food grains: Bengal finance minister Dr Amit Mitra

KOLKATA: West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Thursday terming the four-tier goods and services tax (GST) rates as “reasonable, progressive and balanced”, adding the main achievement has to have food grains exempted from tax ambit.

“We had to fight a long battle to have zero tax on the food grains,” Mitra told ET after the GST Council meeting in New Delhi where a multi-layered GST regime was agreed upon.

“For us, the most important thing was to have an equitable tax structure. Our main intention has been to protect the common man’s interest. we are happy the interest of the common man has been shielded. Food grains have been exempted (from GST). This is an achievement. We, along with some other states, fought a lot to keep food grains out of the tax ambit.

Food grains are not taxed in Bengal and six-seven other states,” Mitra told ET.

He said all items should have a lower tax incidence now. “It should benefit the masses…Our party, the Trinamool Congress, has been insisting for a long time that common people should not be harmed by GST. We are happy we could protect their interest.”

On the compensation to states on revenue loss due to GST, Mitra said the additional cess would go to states directly as compensation.

In the last GST Council meeting, some states, including Left-ruled Kerala, had sought a decision on the formula for compensating states for any loss of revenue post the implementation of GST before any rate was finalised.