GST Council's rush job angers some FMs of Opposition-ruled states

The impromptu rate cuts on a slew of items in the highest slab ruled the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting on Saturday, a day after the government defeated the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. 

The unconventional approach to rate reduction in the first meeting chaired by Piyush Goyal since he took charge of the finance ministry seems to have irked state finance ministers of Opposition-ruled states.

They called the process “undemocratic, unpleasant, unfortunate and non-egalitarian”. Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal left the meeting midway. “The government has gone into election mode, and as a result they