Swamy hits out at Chidambaram, says GST rollout was unanimous

Coming down heavily on senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram's statement that the new tax regime introduced by the Centre is the 'Indian indirect tax and not really the Goods and Services Tax (GST)', the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday stated that the Centre has never passed a bill without 100 percent vote from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Speaking to reporters here, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said, "Did he (P. Chidambaram) introduce GST in parliament? Then why they (Congress) voted for it when we introduced it? The GST was a unanimous vote; we created Parliamentary history. Never ever we have passed a bill without 100 percent consent of the house either from Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. This time they (Congress) had majority in Rajya Sabha and could have easily stopped it but they didn't do that."

Further taking potshots at Chidambaram, Swamy said that the former is a liar and would soon go to jail.

"Chidambaram is a liar and he is going to jail very soon that is why he is making all these statements," Swamy said.

Yesterday, Chidambaram pointed out that many products have been kept out of the new tax regime.

Speaking at a conference here, Chidambaram said, "Petroleum products must be bought under GST. They have kept out petroleum, electricity, alcohol which are peculiar commodities and parts of real estate. Virtually, 40 percent of India's GDP is kept out of GST".

Earlier in the month, Chidambaram had also claimed that the Congress will demand for petroleum products, electricity and real estate to be brought under the GST, as well as a reduction in their rates.

The GST is believed to be the biggest economic reform since independence and it has been implemented with the aim of introducing the economy to 'one nation, one tax' structure.