Former West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Wednesday urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to ‘urgently’ convene a meeting of the TSG Council, which has not met since June. Mitra, who is currently Senior Chief Adviser to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a letter to Sitharaman, said that according to rules of conduct, the GST council is to meet every quarter of a fiscal year. .

The GST Council, chaired by Sitharaman and his counterparts from all states, met for the last time on June 28-29 in Chandigarh.

Subsequently, the meeting was supposed to take place in August in Madurai, but it did not take place.

“…in complete breach of this solemn provision, you have not called a single meeting of the Council during the last four and a half months. Not even an intimation of any demand has been communicated to the Minister of State Finance, West Bengal or any other member of the GST Council,” Mitra wrote in the letter.

He also said that the two Groups of Ministers (GoM) on Rationalization of GST Rates and GST on Casinos, Online Gambling and Horse Racing were unable to submit their report. The GoM on tariff rationalization had only submitted an interim report in June.

“I humbly urge you to urgently convene a meeting of the TSG Board. May I also urge you to bring finality, by consensus, to the serious issues that have been outstanding with 2 GoM for over a year,” said Mitra.

He said the breach of rules of conduct is a case of “serious harm to the only federalist institution where ministers from all states and union territories meet, under your presidency.”