"The Congress was never opposed to the idea of GST," Mr Chidambaram said, "the Finance Minister has said that today in a television interview and we thank him for acknowledging that." The GST, which creates a new national tax to subsume a variety of federal and state taxes, was drafted as a proposal by Mr Chidambaram's party when it was in power. Defending the Congress' opposition in recent months to the GST, Mr Chidambaram professed, "GST doesn't only stand for Goods and Services Tax, it also stands for Good Sense Triumphs, I thank you for accepting our demand." At the Congress' insistence, the government agreed to remove a 1% tax allowed in the proposal for manufacturing states as their goods crossed the border into other states.
