Pondy CM plea to Centre on GST

Puducherry: Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy today urged the Centre to ensure that GST does not cause hardships to the poor and farmers and said “more the tax more would be the evasion.” Tax should be practical to avoid tax evasion, he said, inaugurating a one-day summit of Human Resources Personnel organised by the Puducherry unit of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

The imposition of “exorbitant rate of GST on medicines, textiles, tractors and other commodities used by the common man” was a step in the wrong direction, he added. The chief minister said as a member of the GST Council he had registered his strong protest at its earlier meetings and urged the Union Finance Minister to be “practical in the imposition of GST.” 

He said that unless the GST “is people-friendly the goal of One Nation One Tax would not be reached.” “The more the GST the more will be evasion,” he added. Narayanasamy said demonetisaion had already contributed to a serious impact on the economy and GST was now causing more hardship. Further, he said investments in Puducherry picked up as the government had come out with various concessions and incentives for industrialists setting up units.

“We offer concessions in power tariff, provide investment subsidies and other sops to attract entrepreneurs through our new industrial policy,” he said. The chief minister said with the government according priority for ‘law and order’, a business-friendly atmosphere had also been generated and congenial atmosphere for industrial entrepreneurs was thus available.

He appealed to industrialists and human resources management personnel in various undertakings to adopt a ‘humane approach’ so that there would be cordial relations between industries and the labour force.