GST Launch At Midnight: Here’s The List Of Invitees

It will be a starry midnight in the historic Central Hall on June 30 that will have politicians, industrialists and celebrities – from megastar Amitabh Bachchan to industry doyen Ratan Tata – in attendance at the launch of India's most sweeping tax reform, the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Unlike the last midnight event held in 1997 on the occasion of golden jubilee of the Independence at a special session of Parliament, it will be a gala event at its circular-shaped hall that has been loaned for the launch of the historic reform.

Reminiscent of India's tryst with destiny on the midnight of August 15, 1947, the event will be graced by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deva Gowda too have been invited to launch a new taxation system that is set to dramatically re-shape the over $2 trillion economy.

The Congress has, however, decided to boycott the event apparently to protest against hardship being caused to small and medium enterprises and traders. Left and TMC too are boycotting the event.

Also Read: Congress, Trinamool, Left Parties To Boycott Midnight GST Launch In Parliament

The launch event will start at 11 pm on June 30 and extend into the midnight, coinciding with the roll-out of the GST regime, official sources said.

Here’s a list of those who else have been invited to the event:

1. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan
2. Vice President Hamid Ansari
3. Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar
4. BJP President Amit Shah
5. Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha
6. Former Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal
7. National Conference Leader Abdul Rahim Rather
8. Former GST Council Chairman Sushil Kumar Modi
9. Former Finance Minister of West Bengal Asim Dasgupta
10. Former Finance Minister of Kerala KK Mani
11. RBI Governor Urjit Patel
12. Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan
13. Former RBI Governor YV Reddy
14. Former RBI Governor D Subbarao

Also on the list are:

1. Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma
2. Fomer CAG Vinod Rai
3. Fomer CAG TN Chaturvedi
4. Chief Vigilance Commissioner KV Chowdary
5. Three Election Commissioners including CEC Nasim Zaidi
6. Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya
7. Metro man E Sreedharan
8. Editor S Gurumurthy
9. Agriculture Scientist MS Swaminathan
10. UPSC Chairman David R Syiemlieh
11. CBEC Chairman Vanaja Sarna
12. CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra
13. Senior lawyers Soli Sorabjee, KK Venugopal and Harish Salve
14. Heads of industry chambers - Pankaj Patel of FICCI, Shobana Kamineni of CII and Sunil Kanoria of ASSOCHAM
15. Members of GST Council too have been invited.

A gong will be sounded at midnight to signify that GST has arrived.

The GST Bill was originally piloted by Mukherjee when he was the Finance Minister in the previous UPA regime.

The GST Council, that brings together the central and state governments, has met 17 times to thrash out how the tax will work.

Originally, the launch of GST which had been in the works for over a decade, was to be done from Vigyan Bhawan – the largest convention centre in the national capital that has hosted majority of the meetings of the GST Council.

But the historic Central Hall was thought to be a better choice considering the importance of the new indirect tax code that unifies more than a dozen separate levies to create a single market with a population greater than the U.S., Europe, Brazil, Mexico and Japan put together.

GST will simplify a web of taxes, regulations and border levies by subsuming an array of central and state levies including excise duty, service tax and VAT. It is expected to gradually re-shape India's business landscape, making the world's fastest-growing major economy an easier place to do business.

It has been dubbed as the most significant economic reform since BJP government came to power in 2014 and is expected to add as much as 2 percentage points to the GDP growth rate besides raising government revenues by widening the tax net.

A four-rate structure that exempts or imposes a low rate of tax of 5 percent on essential items and top rate of 28 percent on cars and consumer durables has been finalised. The other slabs of tax are 12 and 18 percent.