'8 Years Too Late': Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram Reacts To GST Revision

Former Finance Minister hailed the Goods and Services Tax revision, but said that this was long overdue and it took the Modi government eight years to realise that a rationalisation was needed. "The GST rationalisation and the reduction in rates on a range of goods and services are welcome, but 8 years too late. The current design of GST and the rates prevailing until today ought not to have been introduced in the first place. We have been crying hoarse for the last 8 years against the design and rates of GST, but our pleas fell on deaf ears," Chidambaram said.

Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh issued the party's statement on X, calling the GST council a "mere formality". "The Union Finance Minister made significant announcements yesterday evening following the meeting of the constitutional body, the GST Council. However, even before the GST Council meeting, the Prime Minister had already outlined its decisions in his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2025. Has the GST Council now been reduced to a mere formality," the statement read.

He said that the Congress has long advocated for GST 2.0. "Amid declining private consumption, sluggish private investment rates, and endless classification disputes, the central government has finally acknowledged that GST 1.0 has reached its limits. In fact, the design of GST 1.0 was flawed from the start, and the Congress had pointed this out as early as July 2017, when the Prime Minister made a U-turn and decided to implement it. It was called the Good and Simple Tax, but it has proven to be a Growth Suppressing Tax," Ramesh said.

He further said the key demand of extending the compensation period for another five years to ensure full revenue protection to states remained unresolved.

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