PM pre-empting decision-making authority of GST Council: Mitra

West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Thursday blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for undermining the constitutional authority of the GST Council ny indicating further cuts in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) ahead of the councils scheduled meeting.

The 31st GST Council meeting will be held on Saturday in New Delhi.

"The statement of the prime minister made on December 18 just before the GST Council meeting undermines the constitutional authority of the GST Council as it pre-empts the decision-making authority of the council, Mitra told reporters at the secretariat.

The GST Council has been constituted under Article 279A of the Constitution and it can alone which has been constitutionally empowered to decide on the GST rate for goods and services, Mitra said.

The neutrality if the council in the decision making thus stands severely eroded and will be highly detrimental to the future functioning of the GST Council, he said.

Modi had pledged further rationalisation of the GST rates so that items of regular are kept out of the topmost 28 per cent slab.

All things related to common man will be 18% or below that 99% articles will be 18% or below 18% rate, Modi had said on Tuesday, adding that GST should be made as simple and as convenient as possible.

Mitra also said that the Prime Minister has spoken when the the Parliament session is on which also violated the parliamentary procedures.

Is there any hidden agenda behind the prime minister giving directive to the finance ministers, he said.

Mitra said that West Bengal government had been demanding a reduction in the GST rates on essential items from 28 per cent to 18 per cent and from 18 per cent to 12 per cent.

It is surprising that the prime minister is now demanding what we had urged the Union government to do long time back. If our demands were met a year back, some of the negative effects of the faulty GST could have been avoided and the economy could have been saved, Mitra said.

Mitra said he would be participating in the GST Council meeting on Saturday and register his protest in this connection.