CHENNAI: Lack of clarity on the agenda of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, a tiring budget session and the post-budget work forced State Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan to skip the council meeting held in Lucknow on September 17.
In an interview to TNIE, he hit out at his detractors, including state BJP president K Annamalai and AIADMK former minister D Jayakumar, saying the representation by Commercial Taxes secretary or Finance secretary to GST Council meeting is nothing new.
This is his first reaction through the media after a nasty row erupted over his absence at the meeting. Annamalai alleged that Thiagarajan did not attend it as he was attending a “baby shower function of his sister-in-law” resulting in a war on social media between the two leaders while Jayakumar termed his absence as an ‘irresponsible act’.
Defending his decision, PTR said the first intimation of the GST Council came on Saturday, September 11. It contained the agenda along with a backdated cover letter (September 5) announcing the schedule of the meeting. It lacked details about the Fitment Committee or anything about the all-important discussion on the compensation to the states.
Another e-mail was received on September 12. “This e-mail had a second agenda book. This had details about the Fitment Committee but nothing about discussion on the compensation to the state,” said minister. Interestingly, the state was in the midst of budgetary session, and September 13 was the final day of the session, wherein 20 bills, including the finance bill, had to be passed.
“I had eight demands for grants for which I had to be present,” said the minister. “We have come to power after 10 years. Many IAS officers have changed and the amount of work that went into preparation of budget was incredible. I am not even saying we are proud of the achievement. But, you will see the real value of the work next year,” he said.
The preparation for the budget and a white paper had consumed more than six weeks of hard work. “I wanted to review the smart city work as well as the issues pertaining to traffic. Since it was an auspicious month, there were functions, which, as an MLA, I had to attend,” he told TNIE.
Strangely, the third agenda of the GST meeting was sent on September 13 around 5.30pm. And this time, the compensation to states had been added. “The agenda was vague. It said some options will be presented. My understanding was why a topic as important as compensation was put in the 18th agenda. They want to discuss it for seven-eight hours and then expect the states to make a decision within minutes,” he said.
Meanwhile, D Jayakumar on Friday said the finance minister lacked political culture and Chief Minister MK Stalin failed to control him. “The finance minister has been criticising the Opposition leaders in an indecent manner. Tamil Nadu has never seen such a minister,” Jayakumar said.