MADURAI: Agrofood Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has welcomed the Supreme Court judgment that the recommendations of the GST Council were not binding on the union and states, but only have a persuasive value, thus clearing the myth that the GST council was “all powerful” to decide on all GST matters. Even though the trade and industry welcomed GST, the progressive new taxation system, it’s sceptical towards the formation and functioning of the GST council, in which they have no representation. “The main stakeholder in the GST system is the trade and industry, which pays tax of more than Rs 1.6 lakh crore/month and make the governments functional. This is paid even before they collect the tax amount from buyers without any remuneration. They have absolutely no opportunity to meet the decision makers in GST to ventilate their grievances and answer their questions across the table, which is not so in any other tax regime,”

S Rethinavelu, president of the ACCI, Madurai said.