Arun Jaitley, Hasmukh Adhia praise Karnataka role in GST

BENGALURU: Finance minister Arun Jaitley and revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia have praised Karnataka for raising valid points and extending full cooperation on GST despite being an opposition-ruled state.

State representative on GST council — agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda — said this was possible because he tried to keep politics out of it. “We tried to tackle each issue through discussions,” Gowda told ET.

Karnataka’s commercial taxes commissioner Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey is also being credited with one of the core group that designed the GST laws.

Gowda was handpicked to attend the GST Council meets by CM Siddaramaiah, who holds the finance portfolio, as he is known to be good with numbers.