Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal has asked the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to examine with ‘all seriousness’, what he termed ‘excessive delegation’ of powers to GST implementation committee (GIC).
In a letter written to Ms. Sitharaman in the backdrop of the recently held GST Council meeting, Mr. Badal said in the meeting he raised the issue of the need to obtain the Council’s approval for decisions taken by the GIC. The GIC involves bureaucrats, which takes decisions in the period between Council meetings.
Pointing out that Punjab’s decision to proffer this concern emanates not from any desire for deliberate fault finding, but to enhance the Council’s ability to collectively make decisions that are backed by consensus and unsusceptible to potential future legal challenges, Mr. Badal said he deemed it necessary to clarify the State’s intent because despite some support from other States during the meeting, Punjab’s observations were not well received and the discussions that followed were tangential and inconclusive.
‘Examine issue’
“It is my firm conviction that this issue is of the utmost importance and must be examined with all seriousness by the Finance Ministry, and perhaps even considered in consultation with the Law Ministry and the Advocate General,” said Mr. Badal.
