It was because of “egos” that GST was implemented “hastily” so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have his “tryst with midnight speech”, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on Friday. Leader of Janata Dal (United) Pavan Varma said that there was “political unanimity” that a “some kind of substantial tax reform” was required, but agreed that the implementation could have had been better. Both were talking at the launch of a book titled ‘Ground Scorching Tax’, written by economist Arun Kumar. Not only is the GST “ill-planned”, Kumar said, it also suffers from “structural problems” which will “stay with us”. Kumar said that the GST, in its current form will adversely impact the unorganised sector. He said, “the organised sector will expand, while the unorganized sector will contract” and thus lose out. “Inequalities will increase,” he added.
