P Chidambaram says Multiple rate GST will be disastrous

Kolkata: The proposed multiple rate GST structure will be “disastrous” and nothing more than same old VAT rates in a “new shape”, former finance minister P Chidambaram said today.

“We sincerely hope that we do not misinterpret the design of standard, standard minus and plus rates of GST. We can have 20 rates. It will be disastrous and that cannot be GST, it will be fooling the country,” Chidambaram told an interactive session with IIM Calcutta students on economic reforms.

“A well designed GST is expected to have standard rate, plus and minus standard rate. That latitude interpreted to me as multiple rate – zero to 100 – that’s not GST. That is simply existing VAT rates in a new shape, old wine in a new bottle,” he said.