Chennai, Sept. 19 -- Countering the charge that the union Government was bringing the GST reforms now after having fleeced the people for over eight years, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on todyaevening said the previous rates were decided by the Empowered Committee and only now the opportunity has come to slash it.
"The previous rates were imposed neither by former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the NDA government", she said.
It was the decision of the Empowered Committee, comprising Finance Ministers of all States, from all parties. Jaitley himself was not for that", she recalled.
With each State having different rates of surcharge, VAT and other taxes, it was decided to have the closest average ...