Finance Ministers of Congress States seek changes in GST regime

NEW DELHI: With the GST Council likely to offer some relief in the goods and services tax to small businesses and traders when it meets in Guwahati on November 9-10 – exactly a month before the first phase of the Gujarat assembly polls – the Congress party is looking to project itself as the original advocate of a realistic tweaking of the regime’s norms.

The GST Council must agree to a rationalisation of tax slabs and a lowering of the 28% rate cap, among other demands, the Congress finance ministers of Punjab, Karnataka and Puducherry - Manpreet Badal, Krishna Gowda and Kamalakaran – said at a joint press conference in New Delhi on Monday.

While the Centre had “arrogantly” overlooked their demands earlier, “the nationwide resentment and the upcoming Gujarat polls have, finally, made the government to look at our constant demands with accommodation now,” they said.


The Congress party’s other demands related to GST, which was implemented on July 1, include simplification of tax-filing norms and smoothening of the IT backbone of GST, among others.