GST a clumsy draft : P. Chidambaram

The land mark bill which has been raised in the upper house faced some serious wrath from the former Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram stating that the currently introduced bill is clumsy.

There are three major issues raised by P. Chidambaram:

1. P. Chidambaram, pointed that the centre has made some provisions of what will or will not go in consolidated fund of India in the amendment. This should have been thought of earlier. Revenue must go in consolidated fund. It can't go anywhere else. The draft Bill leaves it unanswered.

2. Dispute resolution between the Centre and a State or between two States or between a group of States is not a matter on which the Constitution remains silent.

3. Rate of tax should be low, rich countries have a GST rate of 16.8, emerging countries have 14.1 per cent. Therefore, the current tax should be as low as possible.

As on Aug 3, as at 3.04 pm BSE Sensex and Nifty are trading at 27782.11 and 8571.4 down by 0.71 and 0.6 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, the discussion of GST is ongoing in the Rajya Sabha. Hopefully, a peaceful resolution on GST will give a positive outcome for the economy and investors.