Congress on GST Council's decisions: Too little, too late, govt needs to do much more

Reacting to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council's easing of rules for exporters and small companies, the Congress termed the reduction in GST rates "too little, too late".

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Randeep Surjewala.
Randeep Surjewala.

In Short

  • Opportunity of adding 2 per cent to India's GDP squandered away by GST mess.
  • PM Modi, Jaitley must heed the sane counsel of Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram.
  • Govt clueless about reforms, which are supposed to remove arbitrary decision-making.

Reacting to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council's easing of rules for exporters and small companies , the Congress termed the reduction in GST rates "too little, too late" and said the government needed to do much more to address people's concerns under the new tax reform measure.

The party's commmunications-in-charge Randeep Surjewala said, "Too little, too late. Procedural reliefs will not compensate for messing with the basic architecture of GST by the Modi government."

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"Huge opportunity of adding 2 per cent to India's GDP squandered away by the GST mess and the subsequent half-baked rollbacks by the panic-stricken Modi government", he added.

Surjewala went on to say, "Wish the Prime Minister and Finance Minister could stop being arrogant and listen to the sane counsel of Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram."

The Congress party, on its Twitter handle, said, "It is ironic that the government has brought an anti-profiteering bill. But it itself indulges in profiteering with fuel taxes. While we appreciate the government reducing GST rates in some segments, a lot more needs to be done to address concerns of the people."

COMPLEXITY OF GST REGIME YET TO BE ADDRESSED

The party said reduction in number of slabs and complexity of GST regime are yet to be addressed and these are critical for the economy's long-term health.

"This govt remains clueless about reforms, which are supposed to reduce complexity and remove discretion, arbitrary decision-making," it said.

Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said, "I feel pained that when someone tells you the truth, you say pessimism is being spread. We want that all the people of the country should get a proper sleep but that is not happening."

The former Union minister said that it is sad that on every issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in denial, be it on corruption, economy or people losing their jobs.

(WITH INPUTS FROM PTI)

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