In a series of tweets on the fourth anniversary of the GST regime, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said that the system has ‘snatched away the rights and freedom of States with respect to taxes’.
“The Centre, which had promised compensation to States for losses while including them in the GST regime, has now gone back on its words. Should the States celebrate the GST’s fourth anniversary for getting cheated on their tax resources,” the JD(S) leader asked.
He pointed out that Karnataka is yet to get GST compensation of about ₹9,000 crore. “Karnataka too would have celebrated the occasion if it had got the compensation,” he said.
Mr. Kumaraswamy argued that it would have benefited the State as it has suffered from resource crunch due to the impact of COVID-19.
“But instead of compensating for the losses on account of GST, the Centre is celebrating amidst the sufferings of States,” he said, adding that the main intention of the GST regime is to divert revenues of States to the Centre so that States would have to ‘sheepishly stand before the Centre like slaves to seek financial allocation’.
He blamed both Congress and BJP for a system that has become a ‘symbol of curtailing the financial autonomy of States in the federal system of governance’.
