Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday criticised the Modi government over the delay in implementing GST reforms and said that the party had consistently demanded the simplification of indirect taxes.
"Congress has been fighting for GST reforms for the past 8 years, but the Modi government never acknowledged their appeals," Kharge said.
Kharge alleged that the government’s “ego” has hurt national interests. He also criticised PM Modi for “promoting foreign leaders abroad,” warning it sets a wrong precedent for India’s foreign policy.
Kharge reiterated that the Congress will continue to raise people’s issues despite repeated neglect by the Centre.
The GST Council recently approved sweeping changes, reducing slabs to 5 per cent and 18 per cent, with a higher 40 per cent rate for sin goods. Items previously taxed at 12 per cent and 28 per cent will largely fall into the main slabs.
Earlier on September 4, Kharge took to X and said the Congress had already proposed GST 2.0 with a "simple and rational" tax system in its 2019 and 2024 manifestos and had demanded simplification of GST compliances, which, he stated, had "severely affected" MSMEs and small businesses.
Kharge recalled that the idea of GST was first introduced by the Congress-UPA government in 2005, and when the GST Bill was presented in 2011 by then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, it was opposed by the BJP.
"When Modi Ji was the Chief Minister, he vehemently opposed GST," he added.
Kharge accused the present government of hypocrisy, saying, "Today, the same BJP government celebrates record GST collections, as if collecting tax from the common people was some great achievement."
The Congress President also demanded that states be fully compensated for five years, taking 2024-25 as the base year, given the likelihood of reduced revenues due to lower tax rates.
"The complex Compliances of GST must also be eliminated; only then will MSMEs and small industries truly benefit," he said.
The Prime Minister on Thursday said that before he came to power in 2014, items of daily use were heavily taxed. "Whether it was kitchen utensils or agricultural things, or medicines, and even life insurance, the Congress government took different taxes on such various things."
"The condition was that the Congress people used to take 21 per cent tax on children's toffees," Modi said in a sharp response to the Congress' which has said the GST rationalisation approved by the GST council has come eight years late.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been a vociferous critic of the GST slabs, and has often dubbed it as "Gabbar Singh Tax" that has adversely impacted small businesses.