Odisha Finance minister, Secy to attend Centre's GST debut function

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Odisha Finance Minister Shashi Bhusan Behera and Principal Secretary of Finance department Tuhin Kanta Pandey are scheduled to attend the Goods and Services Tax (GST) launch ceremony at the Parliament Central Hall on midnight.

Chief Ministers of States, MPs and Opposition leaders have been invited to the function where Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will launch the unified tax regime or GST.

Meanwhile, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri and CPI’s D. Raja have refused to attend the GST launch function protesting the Centre’s decision on the unified tax regime from July 1.

Congress also opposed the GST while saying that the government functionary is not ready to carry out unified tax system implementation and therefore, the decision should be delayed.