The Congress party leadership on Monday asked finance ministers of state governments run by the party to be more forthright in criticism of the Narendra Modi government’s "flawed" goods and services tax (GST). It also wants these people to move amendments to improve it at the next GST Council meeting, on November 10 in Guwahati.

The Congress-run Punjab government’s minister for finance and planning, Manpreet Singh Badal, said he expected the Centre to be more "amenable" to suggestions by the Congress at the next Council meeting. He said the Modi government had shed its "arrogance" and proclivity to "ride roughshod" after criticism from veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha and in view of the coming Assembly poll in Gujarat.

Congress party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said Congress finance ministers would espouse the pain and suffering of MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), shopkeepers, traders, housewives and common people, both inside and outside the GST Council.

Badal said Congress finance ministers would "specifically" raise issues related to problems with compliance, tax slabs and demand exemptions for job work in textile, leather, gems and jewellery and other such industries. The Congress has six finance ministers in the GST Council. These are from Punjab, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Puducherry. Badal, however, ruled out voting on any issue. It isn’t clear if the Congress, along with finance ministers of state governments run by other opposition parties, could act as a pressure group within the Council. Badal said the effort by Congress ministers would be to improve the GST so that common people get succour. The opposition parties lack the numbers to win any vote in the Council.

The Congress held two meetings on Monday — one to discuss the party’s strategy for protests on the anniversary of demonetisation on November 8 and the other on the "faulty" GST. The Congress and other opposition parties plan to mark November 8 as a ’black day’, while the BJP plans to mark it as anti-black money day.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi attended both meetings. The meeting on GST was also attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former finance minister P Chidambaram, and Jairam Ramesh, among others. Rahul said the PM had destroyed the country’s economy with two "torpedoes" — note ban and GST.  Rahul Gandhi, who is expected to take up his party’s leadership soon, said he couldn’t understand why the BJP was celebrating November 8. "The prime minster is not able to understand the feelings of the people and the hurt and sadness these two decisions have caused," Gandhi said after the two meetings. 

The Congress slogan will be bhugat raha hai desh or India continues to suffer under the Modi government’s policies, Surjewala said.

At the meeting to discuss the GST, Rahul was also asked by some of the seniors when he was taking over as party president.