Begin typing your search...
Pre-GST meeting: State government scores over BJP
In organising a grand “GST seminar” in the city on Wednesday, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s government may have hit two birds in one stone. As much as it justified its decision to sign up for the controversial tax regimen, the ruling AIADMK also did something that would pamper the BJP bosses in the national capital – defending GST in toto.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
That the government had organised the GST conclave in the same Kalaivaanar Arangam and close on the heels of a ‘failed’ seminar hosted by the state BJP should sufficiently explain why critics accuse the ruling AIADMK of playing devil’s advocate to the national party.
The state BJP had struggled to get the same Kalaivaanar Arangam in Chepauk occupied, let alone getting the house full, despite union minister of state for commerce Nirmala Seetharaman participating in the event late last week.
The same auditorium was jampacked when state Finance Minister D Jayakumar and Commercial Taxes Minister K C Veeramani had hosted the industry representatives in the state on Wednesday.
Though the ministers were content with leaving the hall reading out the browbeaten statement justifying GST, they did well to get a senior bureaucrat to allay the fears of the industry representatives, the same request the ministers had refused to acquiesce to when the DMK-led Opposition had raised it in the Assembly last week.
Irrespective of its political motives behind the organisation of the seminar, traders were all agog about the government allaying public fears on GST, so much so that even the corridors of the grand auditorium were filled with traders making notes when commissioner of commercial taxes C Chandramouli sat through an elaborate Q and A session.
And that success did not come of so easily. Each commercial tax department officer was given a target of 20 plus traders and auditors to fill the auditorium, which they successfully did.
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android
Next Story
