Keeping up the heat against the Modi government on the issue of economy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a new video described Goods and Services Tax (GST) rolled out by the government as an “absolute failure”. While releasing the third video of a series on his social media platforms, Gandhi said that GST was not a tax system but an attack on the poor.
The former Congress president has been targeting the Modi government over its handling of the economy. He also claimed that the GST was the UPA’s idea, which meant “one tax, minimal tax, standard and simple tax”. “NDA’s GST is completely different. Four different tax slabs, up to 28%, are complicated and difficult to understand. Small and medium businesses cannot pay the tax. The big companies can easily pay it by putting 5-15 accountants to do the job,” he added.
The Congress leader also blamed that due to GST, states were not getting their compensation from the Central government as a result of which the states are unable to give money to state employees, teachers, etc. Dubbing GST as “Gabbar Singh Tax”, Gandhi, in his three minutes video, blamed the Modi government for record contraction in the economy and linked it with the GST . “Another big reason for record GDP contraction is the Modi government’s Gabbar Singh Tax (GST). Many have been badly affected by this, crores lost their jobs and states’ economy was affected,” he wrote in a tweet.
He also accused the government of allowing 15-20 businessmen to have the reach to manipulate tax payment and not allowing farmers, labourers and small businesses to have similar leverage. “Why are there four different rates? This is because the government wants those who have the means to be able to easily change GST, and those who don’t have means, cannot do anything about GST,” he added.