Bandaru Dattatreya tries to calm tempers on 12 per cent GST

Hyderabad: Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision to go to court on the 12 per cent GST in work contracts was not in the right spirit. He advised the Chief Minister to wait as he had information that the GST on all ongoing projects would be further reduced in view of the rate of inflation coming down.

“Please don’t jump to conclusions. Let us talk to the finance ministry and get the issue resolved,” Mr Dattatreya said.

Speaking to mediapersons on Sunday, Mr Dattatreya said decisions on GST were taken after consulting all state governments and that the Centre had not taken any decision unilaterally. 

He said TS finance minister Etela Rajendar was present in every GST Council meeting. He said the GST Council had reduced the tax burden from 18 to 12 per cent on ongoing constructions, and it was possible to reduce the tax further.

Elsewhere, TD working president A. Revanth Reddy found fault with Mr Chandrasekhar Rao for issuing contradictory statements on the implications of GST.

In an open letter addressed to the Chief Minister, he said Mr Chandrasekhar Rao had first welcomed the GST and had said it would benefit the state by '3,000 crore. Mr Rajendar who had attended GST Council had not raised any objections, he said.

Mr Revanth Reddy said it was clear that the implementation of GST would raise the burden on projects. It was inexplicable that the Chief Minister, after supporting the GST initially, was now stating that it would burden on the exchequer.

Mr Revanth Reddy demanded that the Chief Minister should admit that he had misled the people on the implication of the GST, and seek an apology. He wanted Mr Chandrasekhar Rao to publicly say that the TRS would not support the Centre till the demands of the state government are met.

Congress leader Ponguleti Sudhakar Rao, the party’s deputy leader in the Legislative Council, said Mr Chandrasekhar Rao had silenced the Opposition parties who had raised several objections during the debate on the adoption of the GST Bill in the Legislature.

Though it was a failure in a number of countries, Mr Sudhakar Reddy said, Mr Rao had praised the Prime Minister for implementing such a revolutionary tax system in India. He said Chief Minister from the beginning had adopted double standards on GST.