Former West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Wednesday wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking an urgent meeting of the the Goods and Services Tax ( GST) Council., which he underlined had not been held in the past four-and-a-half months.

Dr. Mitra, who is principal chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee observed that Rule 6 of the Procedure & Conduct of Business Regulations of the GST Council  explicitly stated that the “Council shall meet at least once in every quarter of the financial year”.

“Yet, in utter violation of this solemn provision, you have not called a single meeting of the Council (physical or virtual) over the last four-and-a-half months,” wrote Dr. Mitra. “Not even an intimation of any exigency was communicated to the Minister of State, Finance of West Bengal, or any other member of the GST council,” noted the economist, who was one of the founder members of GST Council.