Refrain from promoting GST or face protest: Congress' advice to Amitabh Bachchan

All states and Union Territories, barring J&K, have passed their state GST Act, paving the way for rollout of the Goods and Services Tax from the mid-night of June 30-July 1.

File pic

Mumbai: Sparking controversy, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam on Wednesday urged actor Amitabh Bachchan to withdraw from the GST campaign to avoid getting targeted by traders later.

"The GST was a brilliant idea thought of by the Congress. It is another story that the BJP opposed it all the while it was in the opposition. But after coming to power, it started diluting the basic concepts of the GST, and that was not acceptable to us," Nirupam told reporters.

While the Congress sought GST as a single tax for the entire nation, the BJP introduced four tax slabs and three different sub-types of GST, he said.

"It has become very complicated now. Traders and service providers are required to fill three long forms every month. Thus, the basic purpose of the GST is defeated. This is unlike the way the GST has been implemented in other countries," he said.

"Some people are creating a confusion that we are opposing the same GST that we passed. But this is not true. We have always been for the GST but not in this format. We tried for three years to get our reservations noticed by the government but they (the BJP) then started maligning us so we had to pass it," Nirupam further said, as per PTI.

"That is why I am suggesting Amitabh Bachchan should not be a party to every foolishness of the BJP. You (Bachchan) are a known person and have a wonderful reputation which may get maligned if there is a backlash from traders," he said.

"Being your fan, I suggest that you withdraw yourself from the GST campaign," the Congress leader maintained.

Would advise @SrBachchan to wthdraw frm brand ambassador of #GST in ths form.An expected backlash frm traders may go against him eventually. — Sanjay Nirupam (@sanjaynirupam) June 20, 2017

The government has roped in Bachchan to promote the Goods and Services Tax (GST), ahead of the scheduled July 1 roll out of the sweeping tax reforms.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs will be making the 74-year-old actor brand ambassador for the GST. A 40- second video featuring him has already been shot and is being circulated.

On Tuesday, Amitabh had tweeted:

T 2460 -@cbec_india .. a campaign to explain GST .. I was asked, I did it .. pic.twitter.com/Cavjqtkc1W — Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) June 19, 2017

All states sans J&K pass SGST Bill to keep date with July 1:

Meanwhile, all states and Union Territories, barring Jammu and Kashmir, have passed their State GST Act, paving the way for rollout of the Goods and Services Tax from the mid-night of June 30-July 1.

Entire country including 30 States/UTs are now ready for smooth roll-out of GST w.e.f. 1st July, 2017; For details: https://t.co/MvKjpOJc40 — Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) June 21, 2017

While Kerala and West Bengal have issued an ordinance to approve the SGST Act, all other states and UTs have passed it in their respective legislative assemblies.

"As of today, all the states and Union Territories (having assemblies), except the State of Jammu and Kashmir, have passed the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) Act," a Finance Ministry statement said.

Kerala today issued an ordinance approving the SGST Act while West Bengal had issued it on June 15.

"Now only one state is left i.e. the state of J&K which is yet to pass the SGST Act. Thus, almost the entire country, including all the 30 states and UTs, are now on board and ready for the smooth rollout of GST with effect from July 1," the statement said.

GST to kick off from Parliament's Central Hall: 

Reminiscent of India's tryst with destiny at the mid- night of August 14-15, 1947, Parliament's historic Central Hall will host an hour-long function on the intervening night of June 30-July 1 to mark the GST kick off.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda, apart from Vice President Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, will be present in the function.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had yesterday said that if any state keeps out, both its traders and consumers will suffer loss.

"Because they will not get the benefit of input tax, they will have to pay tax twice and the consumers will get materials which are costlier than the rest of the country. Also, compensation package won't be given to states who do not implement GST," Jaitley said. 

(With PTI inputs)