Gujarat government has demanded an open public discussion on the Centre's proposed uniform goods and service tax (GST) which it plans to implement from 2010. The Union government also plans to abolish all other taxes with the implementation of uniform GST.
Minister of state for finance & industry, Saurabh Patel, who had participated in the recently-concluded empowered committee meeting of state finance ministers for GST, said that the state government has raised many important issues in the meeting. "We have demanded the Centre to conduct a nationwide open debate among all stakeholders and public at large for the proposed uniform GST. The central government should put the GST in white paper in public for open discussion." Patel further said that the ministers also demanded open debate on the rate of GST and exemption category of products under the uniform taxation plans. Monitoring of movement of inter-state goods is also a grey area where the Centre has not made any clarification so far, he said, adding that this grey area is where maximum tax evasion is possible. There must be a fool proof monitoring system on the interstate movement of goods. Stating that the Centre is yet to clear the VAT on imported goods , the minister said the Union government should clear this issue in the planned uniform tax before implementing the GST. "Only a few months have been left before implementation of the GST, but the autonomy of the state and revenue devolution ratio is still not made clear which is a major issue. The service part in the proposed tax system is still full of ambiguity which needs to be cleared. The Centre has said that textile will be included in the GST, but registration of the textile units have not yet started," Patel said.
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