Chennai: Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram slammed the BJP for not identifying former President Pranab Mukherjee as the Finance Minister, who retrospectively amended the tax law, following an adverse ruling by the Supreme Court.
“The retrospective tax was imposed in Budget 2012-13. There was a strange reluctance on the part of FM (Nirmala Sitharaman) to name the finance minister who was in office during 2011-12 and who presented the Budget for 2012-13. I wonder why?” Chidambaram tweeted, referring to her comments in an interview.
Chidambaram also said Nirmala Sitharaman is wrong in claiming that GST dues of states have been cleared and cited the example of Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Punjab and Chhattisgarh.
“The FM was wrong. The anger was unjustified,” the former Union Finance Minister said in a statement.
Chidambaram said he has gathered data about GST dues from three States which stand at ₹7,393 crore for Punjab as on June 1, 2021, Rs. 7,142 crore for Rajasthan as on May 21 and ₹3,069 crore for Chhattisgarh as on June 1. “I am trying to gather data from other states,” he added.