Mumbai: The West Bengal government has no reservations over the proposed GST Bill and will support the Centre's key reform measure, state finance minister Amit Mitra said today.
"I don't think anybody has any reservations from our side. It is in our (Trinamool Congress) manifesto and Mamta Banerjee has spoken in its favour," Dr Mitra told reporters in Mumbai on the sidelines of a roadshow for its forthcoming investor summit.
He said earlier that the big concern with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill was that it might affect the state's revenue but now the issue has been resolved.
"It was the key point where we kept saying this has to be put in the Constitutional Amendment Bill that there will be no loss to states in terms of revenue. That appears to have been put into the Constitution for five years. So that's the key point where all of us had a consensus on," he said.
On the demand from producing states to have 1 per cent additional duty over and above the common GST rate, Dr Mitra said this has to be settled between the states before the Bill is moved and that the Centre cannot impose it on the states.
"This was the producer states versus the non-producer states. I think this is something which the government is looking at. They have formally proposed in various occasions to the empowered committee (of state finance minister on GST)," the economist said.
He said contrary to the general perception that West Bengal has land-related issues, the state has around 4,400 acres of readymade infrastructure land available currently for industries.
