The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee gearing up for the upcoming election has announced the Election Agenda and with this has tried to assure the national audience for a thorough review of the GST system. Reviewing the GST system would be the party’s election manifesto.
It looks like the Trinamool Congress is standing strong against the policies of the Narendra Modi government and the manifesto has broadly criticized the policy adopted including the GST taxation rule. The Agenda also has expressed a necessity for a judicial probe in the demonetisation and has expressed the requirement for strengthening and revival of the Planning Commission.
Poll promises
The West Bengal Chief Minister in this election manifesto has promised to be working mostly in the favour of the MSMEs and the unorganised sector. She has also promised that the schemes which have been proved to be beneficial for the People of the State and are being successfully run by the West Bengal government would be replicated.
The Election manifesto also touched the Social welfare schemes, eg, free medical care and revival of the land acquisition policies.
“Each State has its own sentiment and own issues. The next government will be based on a common minimum programme,” Banerjee said.
Critical of GST
Mamta Banerjee who has initially been a strong supporter of the GST scheme in India has turned her favour and has become a strong critic in its context as she says that the GST Rollout has not been implemented as planned. She addressed GST as a “great selfish tax”. She promised for “correcting the repeated mistake(s) of the GST system.”
“GST must be reviewed with an open mind to make it people-friendly, consumer-friendly and SME-friendly. The original idea of GST was different. What the Central government has implemented is nothing but harassment for small businesses and common consumers,” she said.
It was expected that there would be definitely some mention of demonetization in the election manifesto, as the Trinamool supremo has been an ever criticizer of demonetisation ever since its announcement, which has been made on November 8, 2016. She declared demonetisation as a draconian measure and has promised a “thorough investigation.”
Read Also : Negative Impact of GST & Demonetisation Narrated by Labours Itself
“Thorough investigation of demonetisation will take place to find out in whose interest the draconian measure was introduced. Such an investigation can take place at the level of an ex-Supreme Court judge.” she said.
Banerjee, the Chief Minister talked about the relevance of the Planning Commission and stated the importance of its revival. she criticized the Niti Aayog which was a supplement to the Planning Commission and said that NA has not served its purpose.
Another people welfare scheme for which was suggested by her is the ‘100-day work scheme’ and the policy of doubling the wages to 200 days with a justifiable hike in remuneration.
Focus on MSMEs
The West Bengal Chief Minister has always been standing strong in the favour of MSMEs, have promised for a “revamp in the MSME policy.”
She claimed and criticized the Government for the implementation of GST in the Country without trial and tested, which she termed as ‘half baked’. She promised to bring in a new National Policy with “an eye to improve technologies and capacity to scale up”.
It is to be noted that, the new foreign trade policy of which her party is going to be an incredible part of, would have special concerns for MSMEs and labour intensive sectors. In addition to all the above promises, a new national industrial policy and holistic IT policy has been promised.
