Amit Shah’s sudden return to Delhi leaving his Kerala rendezvous midway fuelled zillions of speculations. But, the fact is that he returns to attend a closed-door meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to discuss the fallout of Centre’s economic policies. It was a marathon meeting. Shah told Jaitley that signals from the ground in Gujarat were rather disturbing. Traders from Vadodara, Surat and Ahmedabad were openly opposing the government policies. There was one moment when the two stalwarts had a verbal dual in presence of Modi. Finally, the tri agreed on managing crises by lowering GSP on 28-29 goods besides cutting VAT on petrol and diesel. It was mainly in view of impending Gujarat Assembly polls that the Government lowered GST rates on routine Gujarati snacks like Aam Papad and Khakra from 18 to 5 per cent. Keeping mind Surat’s textile industry, GST on Zari was reduced to 5 and on yarn, filament and fibres the duty was reduced from 18 to 12 per cent. Government is apparently
waiting for people’s response to the sops that is what is delaying Election Commission’s announcement of election dates. BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha has in his own inimitable style given a new definition of GST – Gayeel Tohaar Sarkar (Your Govt is bound to fall).