Madhya Pradesh has no objection to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said here on Sunday.
Chouhan while talking to mediapersons here on Sunday said, “We were never against GST. We have put forth our stand on a GST structure through which States were to face losses in State taxes. The Central Government will find a solution to that. There is no objection to it (GST).”
Chouhan said, “We have never opposed to GST in principle. We were opposed to some of the provisions that were part of the earlier version of the constitution amendment Bill. We stressed the need to protect states’ revenues. We also wanted that States should be collecting taxes and give centre its share.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled Madhya Pradesh has been demanding a mechanism for full CST (Central Sales Tax) compensation.GST is an indirect tax reform that aims to remove all barriers between states and integrate the country into a common market.
The previous Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre had accused the BJP ruled States of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh of stalling progress on the GST regime. GST is considered to be a very significant step in the field of indirect tax reforms in the country which would amalgamate a large number of central and state taxes into a single tax. GST would replace central excise duty and service tax and subsume state VAT, Central Sales Tax and luxury tax, among others.
The idea of moving towards GST was first mooted by the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget for 2006-07. Initially, it was proposed that GST would be introduced by April 1, 2010. However, several deadlines have been missed and it is yet to be rolled out.