AFP, New Delhi :
Indian opposition parties vowed Friday to boycott the launch of a new new national tax, adding to the strain ahead of the country’s biggest ever fiscal reform.
Businesses are bracing for upheaval as India rolls out the long-awaited goods and services tax (GST) with the aim of transforming the nation of 1.2 billion people and its $2 trillion economy into a single market.
The main opposition Congress party dismissed the tax launch event at midnight on Friday as a “publicity gimmick”.
Other parties said they would join a boycott of a special sitting of the two parliament chambers-to be held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the tax takes effect.
There have only been three previous midnight sittings of parliament in India’s history, to mark its independence in 1947 and the 25th and 50th anniversaries.
Congress said the nationalist government was “insulting the very memory of India’s freedom struggle and the sacrifices associated with it”.
Rashtriya Janata Dal party spokesman Manoj Kumar Jha said the party would “boycott this mega spectacle of optical illusion.”
“Though we have been in favour of GST, we believe there are pressing concerns, particularly among the small and medium level traders and manufacturing units, which remain unaddressed,” he said.
The GST will start Saturday even as businesses complain they are ill-prepared for the massive changes about to ripple through India’s unwieldy economy.
The government promises the new regime will simplify trade by replacing more than a dozen levies with one tax, combat corruption and enrich state coffers by bringing the informal economy into the digital era.
Most economists agree the reform-first proposed in 2006 — is long overdue, but warn the initial shock to the economy is likely to drag, rather than stoke, growth in the short term as businesses adjust.
There are already signs the transition could be rocky.
Indian opposition parties vowed Friday to boycott the launch of a new new national tax, adding to the strain ahead of the country’s biggest ever fiscal reform.
Businesses are bracing for upheaval as India rolls out the long-awaited goods and services tax (GST) with the aim of transforming the nation of 1.2 billion people and its $2 trillion economy into a single market.
The main opposition Congress party dismissed the tax launch event at midnight on Friday as a “publicity gimmick”.
Other parties said they would join a boycott of a special sitting of the two parliament chambers-to be held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the tax takes effect.
There have only been three previous midnight sittings of parliament in India’s history, to mark its independence in 1947 and the 25th and 50th anniversaries.
Congress said the nationalist government was “insulting the very memory of India’s freedom struggle and the sacrifices associated with it”.
Rashtriya Janata Dal party spokesman Manoj Kumar Jha said the party would “boycott this mega spectacle of optical illusion.”
“Though we have been in favour of GST, we believe there are pressing concerns, particularly among the small and medium level traders and manufacturing units, which remain unaddressed,” he said.
The GST will start Saturday even as businesses complain they are ill-prepared for the massive changes about to ripple through India’s unwieldy economy.
The government promises the new regime will simplify trade by replacing more than a dozen levies with one tax, combat corruption and enrich state coffers by bringing the informal economy into the digital era.
Most economists agree the reform-first proposed in 2006 — is long overdue, but warn the initial shock to the economy is likely to drag, rather than stoke, growth in the short term as businesses adjust.
There are already signs the transition could be rocky.
