Maharashtra Finance Minister Ajit Pawar on September 16 said that the Centre must not “encroach on the State’s rights” to collect taxes, and “any topic to put a curb on the State’s rights, if discussed, will be strongly opposed”.
“The Centre should do its work of invoking taxes as mandated by the law. But it should not encroach on the State’s rights,” Mr. Pawar said, a day prior to the GST Council meeting scheduled to be held in Lucknow on September 17.
Mr. Pawar said that stamp duty and excise duty were taxes which help States ‘in extreme situations’. “GST, of course, is a principal source of income for the State. Therefore, any curtailment of the State’s rights is not welcome,” he said.
The Minister said that the Centre must fulfil the promises it had made while passing the ‘one nation, one tax’ law in Parliament. “We are yet to get around ₹32,000 crore of GST reimbursement. The amount coming from the Central government is so unequal that the number keeps on fluctuating. In any case, we have not received the amount due to us,” he added.
When asked about the ongoing discussion on bringing petrol and diesel under the ambit of GST, Mr. Pawar said that the State government had not received any such proposal. “But we have kept our position ready in case the topic comes up for discussion. We have decided on the strategy and it will be presented in the meeting,” he said, refusing to reveal whether the State was in agreement with the proposal or not.
Two days ago, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray too raised the issue of non-payment of GST dues by the Centre with a NITI Aayog delegation. Mr. Thackeray requested NITI Aayog members to look into the matter, expressing the fear that the dues might reach ₹50,000 crore if not paid on time.
