Samajwadi Party to attend GST launch event

With many political parties boycotting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) launch event, the Samjawadi Party on Friday finally decided to participate in the function, scheduled today midnight.

"We oppose the GST. It's a black law but since President Pranab Mukherjee will attend launch, we will go as we do not want to create controversy," Samajwadi Party Naresh Agrawal confirmed to ANI.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has backed the GST and questioned as to why the political parties are creating fuss over its launch event when they unanimously passed the uniform tax regime in the Parliament.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will also not attend the event. However, senior leader and Bihar Energy Minister Bijender Prasad Yadav will represent the Janata Dal (United) on his behalf.

The Congress Party yesterday said that it would boycott the midnight meeting, convened by the government, on the implementation of the GST.

Besides Congress, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have also decided to boycott the event.

Ahead of the historic rollout of the GST that is scheduled to take effect from midnight, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu earlier in the day urged the Congress Party to 'realise and rethink' their stand and join the government for the midnight Parliament session.

The GST, which is slated to roll out today midnight, will bring the Indian economy under a single tax bracket.