The Opposition UDF staged a walk out in the Assembly on Wednesday after Speaker A N Shamseer refused to even allow it to move an adjournment motion on Kerala's poor tax administration.
Right at the outset, the speaker said issues related to Goods and Services Tax had been discussed many times during the ongoing Budget session and so was unnecessary as an adjournment motion.
It was Congress's Angamaly MLA Roji M John who had issued notice for the motion. Usually, the Speaker allows the mover and the minister concerned to make their points for nearly 10 minutes and only then would he decline the motion.
On Wednesday, however, the Speaker went straight to the next proceeding ignoring Roji.
Opposition Leader V D Satheesan objected strongly. He said there was the issue of Kerala losing over Rs 25,000 crore in the last five years by way of unclaimed Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST).
Further, Satheesan said that there was a woeful lack of data. "The government has not tabled the Expenditure Review Committee report," he said. Also, he said finance minister K N Balagopal had not provided answers to over 400 unstarred questions spread over the last three Assembly sessions.
Satheesan said since the minister was not providing any data, the UDF had painstakingly collected some facts and would want to place them before the House and offer suggestions.
"I am surprised you are not willing to discuss the issue," Satheesan said. "You are afraid of adjournment motions. In the last two days you have lost face and now you want to deprive the Opposition of its rights," he said.
The finance minister said the issue could be discussed this entire month. "This entire session is dedicated to finance," Balagopal said.
Satheesan then asked if the government was willing to discuss why was the adjournment motion declined. He also rejected the suggestion that the issue could be taken up as the first Submission.
