Chennai: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has urged States to reject options given to them by the Centre over the GST compensation issue and demand money in one voice.
He has taken a swipe at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the ‘act of God’ comment she made on Thursday while describing the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on GST collection.
Sarcastically hailing the Finance Minister as ‘the messenger of God’, Chidambaram demanded she also explain the government’s ‘mismanagement’ of the economy before the Covid crisis began.
“If the pandemic is an “Act of God”, how do we describe the mismanagement of the economy during 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20 BEFORE the pandemic struck India? Will the FM as the Messenger of God please answer?” Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.
“Under the first option states are asked to borrow by pledging future receivables under compensation cess. The financial burden falls entirely on the states,” he tweeted.
“Under the second option, states are asked to borrow from the RBI window. It is more market borrowing, only by a different name. Again, the entire financial burden falls on the states,” he added.