New Delhi: It will be a starry midnight in the historic Central Hall on June 30 that will have from megastar Amitabh Bachchan to industry doyen Ratan Tata in attendance at the launch of India's most sweeping tax reform, 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 NarendraModi.
Former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deva Gowda too have been invited to launch a new taxation system that is set to dramatically re-shape the over $2 trillion economy.
Congress party 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.
The launch event will start at 11 pm on June 30 and extend into the midnight, coinciding with the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, official sources said.
LokSabha Speaker SumitraMahajan and Vice President Hamid Ansari will also be on the dias along with the President, Modi and former prime ministers.
Legendary singer LataMangeshkar will be among the attendees, which also includes BJP president Amit Shah and former finance minister YashwantSinha.
As if giving representation to regional political parties, former Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal and National Conference leader Abdul Rahim Rather too have been invited.
RBI Governor Urjit Patel and his predecessors BimalJalan, Y V Reddy and D Subbaroa too figure in the list. However, former RBI Governor RaghuramRajan is not on the list.
CAG Shashi Kant Sharma and his predecessors VinodRai and TN Chaturvedi, CVC K V Chowdary, three Election Commissioners including CEC NasimZaidi, NitiAayog vice chairman ArvindPanagariya, Metro man E Sreedharan, editor S Gurumurthy, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, UPSC Chairman David R Syiemlieh, CBEC chairman Vanaja N Sarna and CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra have also been invited.
Senior lawyers Soli Sorabjee, KK Venugopal and Harish Salve as also heads of industry chambers - Pankaj Patel of Ficci, ShobanaKamineni of CII and Sunil Kanoria of Assocham too are on the list of invitees.
Sources said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar has written a letter to all LokSabha and RajyaSabha MPs requesting for their presence.
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.