Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Tuesday, July 19, sought the urgent intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on essential commodities, saying the move will severely affect common people. Pinarayi said that the GST Council has decided to change the modality of imposition of GST on goods such as rice, wheat, flour, pulses, cereals, etc which form a substantial part of the consumption budget of an ordinary person in the country.
"This change is most likely to have a negative impact on the family budget of a vast number of our people, who are already bearing the brunt of high inflation. Kerala's Finance Minister has already conveyed the reservations of the state government in the meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on implementing GST rate revision without a detailed study," Pinarayi said in a letter written to the PM.
The Kerala Chief Minister said that the imposition of GST on essential commodities will severely affect common people who are already bearing the brunt of high inflation. "Many small shopkeepers and millers pre-pack and keep the items ready for sale so that the customers can readily purchase them off the shelf rather than spend time getting the items weighed and packed. Such pre-packing is a common practice in most of the retail shops in Kerala. The present change will have an adverse impact on a large number of ordinary customers who frequent these shops for their essential purchases," Pinarayi said.
He requested the intervention of the Prime Minister to take necessary steps to re-examine the present changes so that common people are not put to further hardship at this juncture when high inflation rates are prevailing.