tamil-nadu

Updated: Dec 07, 2019 19:23 IST

DMK president MK Stalin on Saturday urged Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) to file a petition before a court against the central government for not paying the Goods and Service Taxes (GST) revenues.

According to Stalin, the Centre had failed to keep its promise to compensate states which are facing loss due to the GST.

“The Union government had assured both in public and the Parliament that if the states are facing loss due to the new GST law, it will provide receive the compensation for five years. But, now it is saying it could not compensate the states due to the poor economical condition,” Stalin said in a statement.

He urged the Tamil Nadu CM to initiate legal proceedings against the Union government.

“To ensure the financial autonomy rights of Tamil Nadu, it is essential to file a petition against the Union government for releasing the GST dues. It is highly condemnable that CM EPS, and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam are not reacting to this,” the DMK leader added.

On Wednesday, finance ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Puducherry and Madhya Pradesh and officials from Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal met Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss their grievances over the delay in GST compensation payment.

Stalin recalled that late chief minister J Jayalalithaa had not supported the new GST when it was at proposal stage.

“When she was the CM, Jaya opposed the proposals under GST. When EPS become the CM, he supported the new GST bill. The CM also sent his cabinet colleague Jayakumar. But DMK opposed the bill when it was tabled in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. As a leader of the opposition, I urged CM to send the bill to the selection committee. However, the CM and AIADMK hailed the GST bill,” Stalin’s statement reads.

He also asked the AIADMK government to release a statement about the GST dues which the Centre has to pay Tamil Nadu.

“Tamil Nadu Government should release a white paper about the money due to the state from the Centre. It is being said Rs 9270 crore was the loss for TN after the new GST law was implemented. In the 2019-2020 annual financial report, the TN government said that Rs 5909 crore of compensation is pending. So, the state should clear the air about GST dues and compensations,” the former deputy CM said.

Stalin also said the GST dues are weighing on the state’s financial stability as Tamil Nadu’s debt has mounted to Rs.3.47 lakh crore.

“I suspect that the CM is intentionally worsening Tamil Nadu’s financial condition as he will not form the government again. As the AIADMK’s government term will complete in 2021, CM is emptying the state treasury,” Stalin said.

Reacting to Stalin’s statement AIADMK leader and state fisheries minister D Jayakumar who is also one of the members of Group of Ministers for GST, said his government would definitely get the compensations from centre.

“The AIADMK government has a cordial relationship with the Centre. Therefore, when compared with other states, TN is receiving GST compensations without any issues. We will impress upon the Centre to release the pending compensations. It is not necessary to go court against the Centre. I want to question Stalin that why his party was silent when the UPA government failed to give the VAT compensation of Rs 5000 crore,” Jayakumar said.

He further said his party accepted the new GST bill only after Centre promised the compensation to states which are facing loss.

“It was our late leader Jayalalithaa asked the Centre to give compensation for GST loss. As per her request, the central government agreed to give compensation to states in the case of facing loss due to the new bill. So, we accepted the bill,” he said.