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Congress president Rahul Gandhi declared in an election meeting in poll-bound Karnataka that his party, if voted to power during general elections next year, will simplify goods and service tax (GST) and will remove all confusion that it has created since its inception.
Gandhi was speaking during a meeting addressed to businessmen and professionals in north Karnataka’s Kalaburagi city, where he said, “We are clear in our position. We will simplify GST if we come to power. We will try to remove the confusion that exists today.”
Gandhi said Congress had always supported a GST that had a single tax slab of 18%, compared to the four slabs that exist under Modi government’s GST. He said they will keep a large number of items commonly used by poor people outside the framework of GST and every other item will be taxed at 18% only.
“Let me tell you what the idea of GST was. It was to make your life simple. The NDA government led by BJP had a long battle with us in Parliament. We kept telling them not to have five slabs and they did not listen to us. Eventually they passed the GST and you see the result,” said the Congress president.
Gandhi, who has often referred to GST as “Gabbar Singh Tax” for the way it has been enforced, said senior Congress leaders like Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram had suggested testing GST as a pilot project before enforcing it nationwide, but the government did not listen to them and implemented it overnight.