Almost a week after the rollout of the landmark Goods and Services Tax, the Congress today called it “imperfect” and a “mockery” of the original draft, and added that it should have been delayed by at least two months since it fails to achieve its purpose in its current form.

“The GST rollout should have been delayed by two months. The GST Network should have undergone a dry run before implementation,” former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in a press conference in New Delhi.

“This is not the GST the UPA government had envisaged. It’s imperfect, a mockery of GST,” Chidambaram said, adding that his party, the Congress, will press for the reduction in rates and an 18 per cent cap.

“The aim was that one indirect tax will subsume all other indirect taxes. This GST fails to achieve that,” he said.

The senior Congress leader demanded that real estate, electricity and petroleum products must be brought under GST.