It is against the spirit of "cooperative federalism", Bhupesh Baghel said. (File)
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday slammed the centre for allegedly keeping out the members of Congress-ruled states from the group of ministers (GoM) constituted by the GST Council for exemption of tax on essential goods related to coronavirus.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has constituted an eight-member panel of ministers, which does not include any member from Congress-ruled states, for exemption from tax on essential goods related to Corona, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister's Office (CMO) informed.
According to CMO, Mr Baghel mentioned that the ministers from Congress-ruled states, who are part of the GST Council, should be included in the GoM constituted to discuss the GST rates on COVID relief material.
"It is unfortunate not to include any members of Congress-ruled states and is against the spirit of "cooperative federalism," he said.
For the last several days, the Congress party has been continuously demanding for exemption of GST on vaccines, medicines and other devices to effectively combat the Covid pandemic at all levels.
In the meeting of the GST Council also, the ministers of Congress-ruled states had proposed a relaxation of GST in this regard to 0.1 per cent rate instead of 5 per cent.
An eight-member committee was constituted by the chairman of the GST Council to look into the matter when no consensus was achieved in the council.
Mr Baghel said that not a single Congress-ruled state's minister has been made a member in the committee "deliberately" so that this demand is not considered.
Members of the Congress party, including Sonia Gandhi, has continuously raised this issue, while Mr Baghel had also emphasized this prominently in the video conference with the Prime Minister, urging him for exemption in GST in goods related to Covid-19.