TMC not to attend GST roll-out programme: Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that GST was an “epic blunder” by the Centre and added that she and her party were “deeply concerned” about its implementation.

Despite supporting GST initially, the Trinamool Congress government has decided not to ratify it in its legislative assembly.

Banerjee said her party would not attend the GST roll-out programme on June 30 midnight.

Interestingly, her finance minister Amit Mitra was the chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers over GST and was instrumental in bringing all reluctant states on board.

Mitra, who had repeatedly requested the Centre to defer GST by a month, had written at least half a dozen letters to the Centre explaining the hardship that small, medium and micro industries might face once GST kicked off from July 1.

The Bengal finance minister had also demanded a White Paper on the preparedness of the Centre Banerjee said: “After demonetisation, this is another epic blunder by the Centre. We have backed GST from the beginning, but are worried about its implementation.”