Criticising summoning of special midnight session of Parliament to celebrate the launch of Good and Services Tax (GST), Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Friday said that calling a midnight session for implementation of new tax regime demeaned the glory of the celebrations of Independence.
Interacting with media at Shimla, Singh said, he had no reservation with the move of NDA Government to call a special session of parliament to celebrate the implementation of GST, but convening a midnight session on the lines of the parliamentary session called when the country got independence, seemed to lower down the glory of the celebration of independence.
The Chief Minister said that equating GST implementation with freedom struggle was an insult to the sacrifices of martyrs of freedom struggle of the country.
He said that the business and trading community were opposing GST and had reservations about the impact of it.
Virbhadra Singh’s statement has come just a day after the Congress announced to stay away from the special midnight session.
Congress had on Thursday said that NDA Government was just trying to give a hype to the implementation of GST by equating it with independence day.
While the CM expressed his straightforward contempt over the way of celebration of GST implementation, the trading community in Himachal Pradesh gave a mixed response to the call of Bharat Bandh given by Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal.
In the State capital Shimla, around half of the shops were kept closed by the traders, while in district Una, the call of Bharat Bandh seemed quite effective as most of the shops and trading companies kept their shutters down.
Talking on the response of Bandh call supported by Himachal Vyapar Mandal, Inderjeet Singh, President, Shimla Vyapar Mandal said that they were not against the implementation of GST but Government should have cleared the apprehensions of the trading community.
In Shimla, while a large number of shops were closed till noon, most of the shops were opened afternoon.
Seeking deferment of the implementation of GST by 3 months, S K Sharma, President, Himachal Pradesh Vyapar Mandal claimed that the bandh was observed in the entire state, barring a few places, where shops and business establishment were opened. He claimed that mostly the shops of eateries.
Tea stalls, medicine shops etc were opened, and they were kept out of the Bandh.
He said that trading community was not averse to the tax reforms, but the Government should first clear all the doubts, which have been raised by the trading community and the implementation should be deferred for 3 months to make people understand the GST better.
Instead of forcing people into the new tax regime, Government should have made people aware about the technicalities of the new tax regime and addressed the doubts of the people, so that trading community went into the new regime with ease.