CM Mamata Banerjee cooks and serves food at a roadside stall during her visit to Belpahari in Jhargram district. (PTI)West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the Centre should do away with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime if it is unable to clear the dues owed to the state.
Banerjee wondered if she would have to “beg” to get the dues cleared.
Addressing a rally in the tribal-dominated Belpahari area of Jhargram district on the occasion of the birth anniversary of freedom fighter and tribal leader, the chief minister said the BJP-led government must either make the payment or the party must step down from the seat of power.
“They are not releasing funds under MGNREGA scheme. BJP has to step down from power if it does not clear our dues… The Centre must scrap GST if it is not able to clear the state’s dues. They are not doing us any favour by giving us GST dues; it is people’s money that they have taken through GST,” she said at the birth anniversary programme of tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda.
Banerjee said that she had also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and raised the matter. “We had agreed on implementing the GST; we thought the Centre would clear our dues. But now the Centre is taking away all money collected as GST but not giving us our dues.
“The Central government seems to have forgotten that getting the money back is our constitutional right,” the CM added.
“A year ago, I met the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and requested him, but nothing moved forward. Does he want me to fall on his feet and beg for our money? Why should we pay GST if the Centre is not clearing our dues?… If Centre can’t give us the money, we can also stop paying GST. The country is for the people, not for politicians. This is not BJP’s money, it is people’s money,” she said.
Banerjee said Union government is constitutionally bound to pay state for MGNREGA, the 100-day work scheme. “I would like to tell central government that releasing funds for 100-day work scheme is a constitutional norm. It is not an obligation, but a compulsion as law has been passed,” she said. —(With PTI inputs)