Madhya Pradesh and Punjab on Thursday raised concerns over delay in release of GST revenue and other funds by the Centre to the states, saying it was adversely affecting their functioning.
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath criticised the way the GST Council observing that it has no intellectual understanding of the ground situation.
He said that as most of the BJP-ruled states sign on dotted lines at the GST Council meetings.
"GST council consists of states. The states are falling in line with the central government because they may be run by one party. If they are few states and rest are being run by one party then they come to sign on dotted lines. It is pre-determined. There is no engagement. There is no intellectual understanding of the situation. It's all in theories. All on paper. We must recognise and we cannot shut our eyes to this," he said while speaking at the 'India Economic Forum' meeting.
Nath said the GST is not being executed properly and several amendments were being made in quick succession.
"I don't think in history of the world, there has been so many amendments in a single policy," he said adding that "it was rolled out in a manner that the central government was not prepared for it and they had not taken all facts into consideration. If it was very good thing since beginning, why did you need these plethora of amendments?”
Sharing similar views, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said it was told to them that GST collections would be distributed among states every month, but then "we are told every quarter and then it is every 5 months".