Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the second major assault on India’s unorganised economy after demonetisation was the “faulty” Goods and Services Tax (GST).
He further alleged that GST was not a tax system but an attack on India’s poor, and called upon countrymen to stand united against it.
The video was the third part of Gandhi’s fresh series on economy. He had earlier released a five-part series on Chinese aggression in Ladakh.
“GST was UPA’s (Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s) idea. One tax, minimal tax, standard and simple tax. NDA’s (the ruling National Democratic Alliance’s) GST is completely different,” Gandhi said in his latest video message.
The Congress argues that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA has badly conceptualised GST.
“Small and medium businesses cannot pay this tax. The big companies can easily pay it by putting 5-10-15 accountants to do the job. 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 said in the 2.27-minute video.
“Who has the means? India’s biggest 15-20 industrialists. So, whatever tax law they want to change can easily be done in this GST regime,” added Gandhi.
{{/usCountry}}“Who has the means? India’s biggest 15-20 industrialists. So, whatever tax law they want to change can easily be done in this GST regime,” added Gandhi.
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The former Congress chief also attacked the government for its “failure” to pay the GST compensation to states.
“And what is the result of NDA’s GST? Today, the government of India is unable to provide the GST compensation money to the states. The states are unable to give money to state employees, teachers, etc,” he said.
“Hence this GST is an absolute failure. Not only is it unsuccessful, it is an attack on the poor and on the small and medium businesses,” Gandhi added.
Gandhi urged the people to recognise this attack and stand against it together.
“GST is not a tax system, it is an attack on India’s poor. It is an attack on small shopkeepers, small and medium businesses, farmers and labourers. We have to recognise this attack and stand against it together,” he said.
Gandhi’s latest video series comes in the wake of the Indian economy’s decline by a record 23.9% in the first quarter of April to June in the current financial year of 2020-21. The deceleration reflected the economic impact of the 68-day Covid-19-induced lockdown restrictions in the first quarter.
Gandhi has often described the GST as “Gabbar Singh Tax”, a pun on the name of the villain in the famous Bollywood movie Sholay, insisting that it is flawed and needs to be reformed and changed.
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BJP spokesperson Gopal Agarwal said, “Across globe single indirect tax is considered as a mega reform. India’s GST has subsumed more than 13 indirect taxes into one online tax system for ease of compliances. With its online registration, filing of returns, payment, assessment and refund, it removes subjectivity and harassment to small assesses. It has successfully reduced the incidence of taxes on the consumers also with input tax credit.”
He went on to say that more than 60% of small businesses are in the informal sector and were facing continuous harassment from local inspectors, which is now a history.
“All MSMEs are coming into formalisation segments which is important for 97% of our labour force’s social well-being. Establishment of the GST council is a landmark for our federal structure, where all decisions are taken collectively,” he said.
Agarwal termed it “initial hiccups”, adding: “A country like Australia took more than six years for implementation. It’s the need of the hour, globally implemented as a progressive reform.”
In the first video, Gandhi alleged that the central government has destroyed the economy by repeatedly assaulting the informal sector and the latest attack on it was the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
In the second video, Gandhi alleged that the government’s hidden agenda behind demonetization, which saw the scrapping of all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, was to deliberately harm India’s informal sector, which survives on liquid cash.