The States were also demanding compensation be paid to them for a period of five years with 2024-25 as the base year, “since their revenues are bound to be adversely impacted by the rate cuts”, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Opposition-ruled States’ demands that rate slab and rate cuts on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) be built in with mechanisms to ensure benefits were passed on to consumers and State governments were “perfectly legitimate”, and “bolstered” by papers published by the Union Finance Ministry’s National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Saturday (August 30, 2025).
The Congress general secretary in charge of communications posted a statement on social media about the States’ demands ahead of the GST Council meeting next week, adding that the Congress hoped the meeting would “not merely be a headline-grabbing exercise”, but would “advance the cause of cooperative federalism”.
The eight Opposition-ruled States — Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and West Bengal — had agreed to rate slab cuts and rate cuts in GST for items of mass consumption, Mr. Ramesh said, adding that they had also demanded a way for the benefits from these cuts to be passed on to the consumers.
The States were also demanding compensation be paid to them for a period of five years with 2024-25 as the base year, “since their revenues are bound to be adversely impacted by the rate cuts”, the Congress leader said. Any additional levies on “sin” and luxury goods above 40% “should be fully transferred to States”, he said.
“The Indian National Congress has long been demanding a GST 2.0 that not only reduces rate slabs and cuts rates but also brings about drastic simplification of procedures and compliance requirements, especially for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises),” the Rajya Sabha MP said in a statement.
The Congress had also been “stressing the essentiality of ensuring that the interests of all States are fully protected”, he said.
“It (the Congress) hopes that the GST Council meeting scheduled for next week will not be merely a headline-grabbing exercise so typical of the Modi government but will also advance the cause of genuine cooperative federalism in letter and spirit,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Published – August 30, 2025 09:53 pm IST
