Punjab Assembly amends state Goods and Services Tax

Chandigarh, Sep 29

Speaking over the Punjab Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, Minister Cheema said the legislation proposed to amend several sections of the Punjab Goods and Services Tax Act of 2017, including Sections 2, 12, 13, 17, 20, 34, 38, 39, 107, 112, and Schedule III, while also inserting new Sections 122-A and 148-A.

"These amendments are aimed at ensuring uniformity with the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, as recently amended by the Finance Act, 2025."

The Finance Minister also addressed concerns raised by Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa regarding the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system, referencing an article by former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

Cheema said that the proposal for GST was originally brought forward by Chidambaram himself in 2006, but was not implemented by the UPA government due to opposition.

He added that the BJP-led NDA government later advanced the concept on the principle of 'One-Nation One-Tax', which the then Punjab Finance Minister, Manpreet Singh Badal, had agreed to in Delhi.

At that time, the Union government had promised the compensation cess would continue until states' economies stabilised, but this cess was discontinued after 2022.

Highlighting the adverse impact on Punjab, Finance Minister Cheema said the state's pre-GST revenue neutral rate was 18.3 per cent, significantly higher than the country's average rate of 14 per cent.

Following GST implementation, Punjab incurred a loss of Rs 1,11,000 crore over eight years, while only receiving Rs 61,000 crore from compensation tax.

The Minister added that many other states are also grappling with revenue losses due to GST, but are not being heard by the Central government due to the BJP's majority.

He asserted that the Congress should have considered the potential for state losses when they first proposed the GST, saying that productive states like Punjab are bearing the brunt because the GST is a consumer-based tax.

Minister Cheema shared his repeated appeals to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman not to destabilise the economies of the states.

He warned that if the federal structure is compromised, states would be reduced to the status of municipal committees, subservient to the Centre.

Minister Cheema concluded by expressing concern that the BJP is systematically undermining the Constitution drafted by B.R. Ambedkar, citing policies like 'One Nation One Tax' and 'One Nation One Election' as destructive to the federal structure.

He reiterated that the Aam Aadmi Party opposes all such policies, but acknowledged that the GST proposal originated with the Congress.

— IANS