The BJP on Thursday went all out to hail Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the “historic” GST reforms, claiming “ease of living and ease of business”, while the Congress sought to credit Rahul Gandhi for the tax rationalisation and questioned the eight-year delay.
“When they finally have to follow @RahulGandhi’s advice, why do they take so much time doing that?” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said in an X post, attaching Rahul’s old posts pitching for a maximum GST rate of 18 per cent. Rahul had dubbed the GST “Gabbar Singh Tax” and demanded reduction and simplification.
“As an indirect tax, GST affects rich and poor alike. I urge the GST Council to keep the rate at 18% or lower so that the poor are not unduly burdened,” one of Rahul’s posts from 2016 says.
The GST Council on Wednesday night cleared the “next-generation” reforms under the indirect tax regime with a broad two-slab structure of 5 per cent and 18 per cent, and a “sin slab” of 40 per cent on super luxury goods and tobacco products.
Congress leader P. Chidambaram, a four-time finance minister, welcomed the GST rationalisation and the reduction in rates on a range of goods and services but said it had come “eight years too late”. Chidambaram pointed out how the Congress had been “crying hoarse for the last eight years” but their “pleas fell on deaf ears”.
“The current design of GST and the rates prevailing until today ought not to have been introduced in the first place…. It will be interesting to speculate on what drove the government to make the changes: Sluggish growth? Rising household debt? Falling household savings? Elections in Bihar? Mr Trump and his tariffs? All of the above?” the former finance minister’s post on X said.
Modi on Thursday slammed the Congress, accusing its governments of taxing anything and everything, even as he termed the GST rationalisation the “biggest reform of Independent India”.
“No one can forget how the Congress government had increased your monthly budget.... They used to levy a 21 per cent tax even on toffees for children. If Modi had done this, they would have pulled my hair out,” Modi said, addressing a group of teachers at his residence.
“I had promised that this Diwali would bring a double bonanza.... People will start benefiting from the first day of Navratri. This time, Dhanteras will be more vibrant. This is the biggest reform of Independent India,” he said.
The BJP tom-tommed the rationalisation, stressing that yet another promise made by Modi from the ramparts of the Red Fort had been fulfilled. “Another promise made from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15 has been fulfilled. The countrymen have received a big gift before Navratri,” the BJP said on X, pointing out how the GST Council had made good the promise made by Modi on Independence Day.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, slammed the government for reducing the GST Council, a constitutional body, to a “formality”, citing Modi’s prior announcements of the reforms.
“The Union finance minister has made major announcements last evening…. However, even before the GST Council meeting, the PM had already proclaimed the substance of its decision in his Independence Day speech…. Is the GST Council to be reduced to a formality?” Ramesh asked on X.
