Madhya Pradesh CM to cast his vote in favour of GST

Dated 21st September, 2014

Madhya Pradesh has no objection to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said to Zee News on 21.09.2014.

"We were never against GST. We have put forth our stand on a GST structure through which states were to face losses in state taxes. The (central) government will find a solution to that... There is no objection to it (GST)," Chouhan told PTI on 21.09.2014.

Madhya Pradesh has been demanding a mechanism for full CST (Central Sales Tax) compensation.

The previous UPA government had accused the BJP-ruled states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh of stalling progress on the GST regime.

GST is considered to be a very significant step in the field of indirect tax reforms in the country which would amalgamate a large number of central and state taxes into a single tax.

GST would replace central excise duty and service tax and subsume state VAT, Central Sales Tax and luxury tax, among others.

The idea of moving towards GST was first mooted by the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget for 2006-07. Initially, it was proposed that GST would be introduced by April 1, 2010. However, several deadlines have been missed and it is yet to be rolled out.