Calling the Goods and Services Tax (GST) "Gabbar Singh Tax" again, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said his party has "jolted" Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue and Modi now wants to implement what the Congress had suggested earlier.
"The Congress has finally jolted Narendraji from his deep slumber on Gabbar Singh Tax. Though still drowsy, he now wants to implement what he had earlier called the Congress Party's 'Grand Stupid Thought'. Better late then never Narendraji!," Gandhi tweeted.
His remarks came two days after Modi said at an event in Mumbai that the government was aiming to bring 99 per cent of items at or below 18 per cent GST slab.
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Indicating that further simplification of the Goods and Services Tax is on the anvil,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had Tuesday said his government wants to ensure that '99 per cent things' attract sub-18 per cent GST slab.
"Today, the GST system has been established to a large extent and we are working towards a position where 99 per cent things will attract the sub-18 per cent GST slab," Modi had said. He indicated that the 28 per cent slab of GST would only be restricted to a few select items, such as luxury goods.
The announcement invited strong criticism from the Congress, with former finance minister P Chidambaram saying "belated wisdom" had dawned upon the Centre. "Government says 99% of goods will be at 18 per cent GST. Belated wisdom. We should have started with 18 per cent as the standard rate. Having scrambled the egg needlessly when GST was introduced, Government is trying to unscramble it! Typical of NDA," he said Wednesday.
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The party has also accused the Centre of double speak and hypocrisy on the issue alleging that the government is now eating its own words by implementing all that it had earlier mocked.
(PTI and IANS)
