Left parties stage protest against GST meet

Leaders and activists of the Left parties on Saturday tried to march towards the venue of the Goods and Services Tax Council meeting here, to demand its rollback.

Communist Party of India (CPI) Central Secretariat member K. Narayana and other leaders and activists of the Telangana unit of the CPI and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were detained by the police.

The police stopped the protestors as they tried to march towards the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), where the 21st meeting of the GST Council was underway.

There were heated arguments between the two sides, leading to tension in the high security area in the Information Technology hub of Hitec City.

The police personnel physically lifted the protestors into waiting vehicles and whisked them away to a nearby police station.

Narayana said they wanted to meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to submit a memorandum to bring to his notice the problems faced by several sectors due to GST.

The CPI leader claimed that the 28 per cent GST slab has hit industry hard and led to the closure of some units, rendering lakhs of people jobless.

Demanding that the Centre review the new tax regime, Narayana said if it failed to rollback the GST, the Left parties would launch a nationwide protest.

--IANS

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