West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra has accused the GST Council of suppressing his voice in the meeting. At the same time, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur has denied these allegations and said that Mitra’s connectivity was also poor during the meeting.
In a letter to Sitharaman, Mitra said, “I am writing this letter with great displeasure. At the end of today’s GST Council meeting, you referred to my comments by mentioning my name in your remarks. But in response to your point of view. I was not allowed to speak despite appeals to speak. Instead, you gave a platform to the Finance Minister of Uttar Pradesh during that time, who appealed to delete some of my comments and surprisingly you agreed with him.”
Responding to Mitra’s allegations, Anurag Thakur said that no such incident happened and it does not suit Mitra to make such claims.
Anurag Thakur said- “The Finance Minister has never suppressed dissent in the meeting of the GST Council. While making such allegations does not suit a senior member of the Council. The GST Council represents a collective spirit of healthy debate amongst all the states. So far the council has been doing this and will continue to do so in the future also.”
Thakur also said that Mitra’s connectivity was not good during the meeting. The Revenue Secretary kept telling him that his line was breaking and his voice was not being heard properly. According to Thakur, the revenue secretary also asked him to stop the video for better connectivity.
Anurag Thakur further clarified that when the Finance Minister of Uttar Pradesh was speaking, no one heard Mitra speaking, nor did he demand his views. Other members can confirm this.
