Member of Parliament Hamirpur Anurag Thakur today took up the issue of The Central Goods and Services Tax and the Integrated Goods and Services Tax, (Extension to Kashmir) Bill 2017 in the Parliament today.

Thakur, while highlighting the advantages of GST’s one nation, one tax credo, blamed Congress leader Shashi Tharoor for misinterpreting the facts about GST implementation. Anurag Thakur said

“GST is the biggest reform that taxation regime has witnessed since independence. But it is unfortunate to see that some with vested interests who first opposed demonetization for eradicating black money are now opposing GST too. It is the same opposition, when they were in power, they couldn’t even form a single committee to oppose black money but BJP within a month formed a black money committee under the aegis of Justice AP Shah to fight the menace”

He further said, “There have been number of initiations by the Government to ensure that understanding about GST penetrates amongst people at large and in the same regards, over 52,000 officers (both Central and State) have been trained. Large number of training programmes has been conducted throughout the country. In addition to this, a dedicated call centre has been established, along with a YouTube channel and Rate Finder application which aids in finding different rates of goods and services.”

“It is a myth that unlimited internet is required to file returns along with multiple returns, whereas return needs to be filed once a month only. I would urge all the Member of Parliament’s from the opposition to update themselves by visiting the Parliaments’ library.”

Anurag Thakur claimed that in his home state Himachal Pradesh, truck drivers, traders, businessmen, shopkeepers, thanked him for nationwide implementation of GST that has eased the means of doing business. He stated

“It is clear that it is not public at large who are facing problem given to GST and same was the case during demonetization too but the opposition who tries to create commotion for an unrest situation. I fail to understand that if poor are benefiting from these reforms and inflation is decreasing then why the opposition isn’t happy seeing the advancement.”

He also quoted Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stating “Ek desh mein do vidhan, do pradhan aur do nishaan nahi chalnge.” He remembered Shyama Prasad Mukherjee for removing the ID permit that was required to enter Kashmir.

Blaming Congress for committing mistake of making Kashmir a separate entity, he urged fellow parliamentarians for not committing another blunder by blocking the GST implementation in Jammu and Kashmir that he believes will only hampering the development of state and Nation at large.