PATNA: Former Union finance minister and BJP senior Yashwant Sinha on Friday said finance minister Arun Jaitley should be removed for messing up Goods and Services Tax (GST) which caused so much confusion and was still being revised.
Talking to media persons after attending an event of the Vanchit Varg Morcha, a recently floated organization by former Bihar Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary, Sinha said, "My feeling is that Jaitley did not apply his mind on GST. Therefore, PM Narendra Modi should remove him." He said the PM should also constitute a commission headed by Vijay L Kelkar, former adviser to Union finance ministry, who headed the task force on GST in 2004, to give recommendations as to how best to proceed with it and also to rectify its shortcomings.
Referring to the GST Council revising the tax slab on items earlier fixed, Sinha said 227 items had been put under 28% GST slab and Jaitley announced to revise it on 200 items. "What will happen to the tax recovery?" Sinha asked, insisting that the seriousness with which the matter should have been dealt with was not applied.
Sinha also said petrol and diesel should also be brought under GST and pointed out that 40% of the taxable items were out of its net.
He was also critical of demonetisation and said its declared aim was to end black money and circulation of counterfeit currency and reduce terrorism, but none of the avowed objectives could be achieved. "Former solicitor general Mukul Rohatgi had told the Supreme Court that around Rs4-5 lakh crore of black money would not enter the banks, but 99% of the money in circulation, barring the INR in Nepal and the money with the central cooperative bank, returned to the banking system," Sinha said.
"They say demonetisation led to reduction in terrorism and incidents of stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir. The stone pelting also occurred in 1931 and 2010, but did it stop due to demonetisation?" Sinha asked.
Calling the demonetisation a disaster for the country's economy, Sinha said GDP growth rate fell by 2%, implying that Rs3 lakh crore had been lost and around 20 lakh persons also lost their jobs.
"The sinister aspect of demonetisation has been the start of 'raid raj' in the tracking of the accounts for black money. All this will lead to only long-drawn court battles for the trapped money," Sinha said. As to the mass celebration of demonetisation as a "grand success" by the Centre and the BJP, Sinha said, "They also know that demonetisation has been a big failure. Therefore, they have resorted to hyping it up as a big success!"
Talking to media persons after attending an event of the Vanchit Varg Morcha, a recently floated organization by former Bihar Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary, Sinha said, "My feeling is that Jaitley did not apply his mind on GST. Therefore, PM Narendra Modi should remove him." He said the PM should also constitute a commission headed by Vijay L Kelkar, former adviser to Union finance ministry, who headed the task force on GST in 2004, to give recommendations as to how best to proceed with it and also to rectify its shortcomings.
Referring to the GST Council revising the tax slab on items earlier fixed, Sinha said 227 items had been put under 28% GST slab and Jaitley announced to revise it on 200 items. "What will happen to the tax recovery?" Sinha asked, insisting that the seriousness with which the matter should have been dealt with was not applied.
Sinha also said petrol and diesel should also be brought under GST and pointed out that 40% of the taxable items were out of its net.
He was also critical of demonetisation and said its declared aim was to end black money and circulation of counterfeit currency and reduce terrorism, but none of the avowed objectives could be achieved. "Former solicitor general Mukul Rohatgi had told the Supreme Court that around Rs4-5 lakh crore of black money would not enter the banks, but 99% of the money in circulation, barring the INR in Nepal and the money with the central cooperative bank, returned to the banking system," Sinha said.
"They say demonetisation led to reduction in terrorism and incidents of stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir. The stone pelting also occurred in 1931 and 2010, but did it stop due to demonetisation?" Sinha asked.
Calling the demonetisation a disaster for the country's economy, Sinha said GDP growth rate fell by 2%, implying that Rs3 lakh crore had been lost and around 20 lakh persons also lost their jobs.
"The sinister aspect of demonetisation has been the start of 'raid raj' in the tracking of the accounts for black money. All this will lead to only long-drawn court battles for the trapped money," Sinha said. As to the mass celebration of demonetisation as a "grand success" by the Centre and the BJP, Sinha said, "They also know that demonetisation has been a big failure. Therefore, they have resorted to hyping it up as a big success!"
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