Eight non-Congress regional parties held a joint protest in the Parliament House premises on Thursday demanding that the GST dues that the Centre owes to the States should be given at the earliest. Principal Opposition party Congress, which is ruling in four States, was not invited to the protest by the regional parties.
Also read: Centre unable to pay GST dues to States: Union Finance Secretary
The Congress is in alliance with DMK, NCP, Shiv Sena and RJD.
Parliamentarians from Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazgham, Telangana Rashtriya Samithi, Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Shiv Sena participated in the protest.
The move comes ahead of a scheduled debate on the GST in the Rajya Sabha that the government had agreed upon on the insistence of the Opposition parties at an informal meeting chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday evening.
Also read: Cong. asks Centre to clear States' GST dues
At a meeting of the GST Council held on August 27, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had acknowledged that the States are likely to face a GST revenue gap of ₹3 lakh crore this year, as the economy may contract due to COVID-19 which she termed an unforeseen “act of God”. The States were asked to borrow to meet the shortfall. So far, five State governments have rejected the Centre’s suggestion.
TRS Lok Sabha floor leader Nama Nageshwar Rao told The Hindu that the Centre owes ₹9,000 crore to the Telangana government. “States have suffered a severe financial setback because of the pandemic and at such a time, the Centre’s failure to provide even the bare minimum support hurts,” Mr. Rao said. He said he had asked for a debate on the issue in the Lok Sabha moving an adjournment motion.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said all those who participated in the protest will have more joint meetings in the next few days to scale it up. DMK MP Tiruchi Siva said the States are only asking for their dues. “The government cited COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse. Can they explain, if everything was fine, then why were the GST payouts delayed pre-COVID also,” Mr. Siva asked.
Also read: Consider more legally viable options for providing GST dues to States: Kejriwal to PM Modi
RJD MP Manoj K Jha said the government is merely using excuses to not pay the States. “Who are they fooling? They have more than ₹800 crores to build a new Parliament building but no money for the States. What they do not realise is that if the State finances fail, then there will be grave implications and the situation could go beyond their control,” Mr. Jha said.
Asked why the Congress was not invited, sources said many political parties like the TRS and the AAP were not comfortable sharing the stage with the Congress. Delhi CM and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and Telangana CM and TRS leader K. Chandrashekar Rao were not invited to a Chief Ministers’ meeting organised by Congress president Sonia Gandhi recently.
“They do and we follow is no longer acceptable. It is now we do and if you want, you may follow,” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien said. Mr. Jha however said the exclusion of the Congress was not deliberate.
