In letter to PM, Captain Amarinder Singh advises extension of GST to petroleum

Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, suggesting the way forward on Goods and Services Tax (GST) with 101 suggestions to plug gaps and alleviate problems currently faced by businesses in its implementation.

In a letter to the PM, the Chief Minister congratulated Modi on his spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha elections and welcomed the resolve expressed by him to move at a brisk pace to take the country on a trajectory of high growth and social justice.

Citing the high expectations of the people in Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh looked forward to working with the prime minister to bring prosperity to the people India as well as the state.

The Punjab CM has, specifically, given several suggestions on improving the GST revenues that could help Punjab narrow its revenue deficit. He has suggested that the SGST rate should be higher than the CGST so that all States do not suffer such huge deficits.

Amarinder Singh has suggested an amnesty scheme to overcome the various aberrations that led to serious confusion in the business circles in the initial phase of the GST, saying there was no need to continue with VAT legacy issues, which should find a sunset clause.

He pointed out that India has the dubious distinction of being amongst five countries in the world that have four or more non-zero GST rates. The CM called, ideally, for a single GST rate.

He has also suggested widening the GST net to include Electricity, Real Estate and Petroleum to make it a win-win situation for States as well as businesses.

Exclusion of products like crude and natural gas from the GST results in a situation where it is beneficial to export them and re-import rather than supply them directly within India. Many States like Punjab lose a big chunk of revenue as the embedded taxes on these products are retained at source rather than at the place of consumption, he pointed out.

In his letter to Modi, Amarinder Singh has also said that despite significant refinements in the recent past, the GST continues to languish with many differentiators and exceptions in tax rates, unclear law, lukewarm revenues and high compliance costs, all of which act as barriers to economic growth.

In another letter to the prime minister, Amarinder Singh has sought Modi’s personal intervention to bring more rural poor people into the ambit of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin) by relaxing the norms. H

He said that the definition of the Kutcha House (under SECC) was very restrictive, causing a large number of poor and deserving people of Punjab to be deprived of the benefits under PMAY(G).Changing the norms would ensure that the maximum number of rural poor population gets covered under this pro-poor initiative.

Referring to his meeting with Modi on September 1, 2018, where the latter had raised the issue of low level of performance of Punjab under PMAY(G), Capt. Amarinder Singh said Punjab then ranked 25th among all states but, within just nine months, had improved its ranking to 3rd.

His government, said the Chief Minister, shall continue to work to ensure that every rural poor household has a pucca house. He also appraised the PM that a large population of the poor was excluded from PMAY(G) benefits due to the restrictive nature of the norms.