Letters: GST - A restructuring job

Apropos A K Bhattacharya's column "Towards an Indian GST regime" (New Delhi Diary, April 29), the summing up done in the last para is the best part of the piece. It would indeed be a 'pragmatic move' to go ahead with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) with certain necessary compromises. The dual GST model to be adopted by India would be like a joint venture between the Centre and the states. Therefore, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has to make compromises in the structure of the GST, so as to get the states on board.

A purist might not like these compromises. But how long can the country wait with seemingly endless negotiations between the Centre and states since 2006? As summed up by the author, let us move forward with an "imperfect GST", and let the all-powerful GST Council make course corrections at the earliest opportunity. The imperfections pointed out can surely be corrected when the unfounded fear of the states about loss of revenue is dispelled.

Sumit Dutt Majumder New Delhi

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