Only Pakistan and Sudan have a similar tax regime: Rahul Gandhi on GST

Only Pakistan and Sudan have a similar tax regime: Rahul Gandhi on GST

Bengaluru: Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation, Congress President Rahul Gandhi compared the new tax regime to that of Pakistan’s and Sudan’s.

“It is the most complex tax in the world. Only Pakistan and Sudan have a similar tax regime,” Gandhi said.

Continuing with his acronym of ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ for GST, “Once in power, we will make sure it is, what in the world is called GST, not Gabbar Singh Tax.”

Assuring a dual-rated lower tax structure, in case Congress comes to power in 2019, Gandhi said: “When we come to power in 2019, we will take a comprehensive look at the GST and provide you with a GST that is a simple one and doesn’t punish you.”

Incidentally, last week, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian had said that his report had suggested a dual tax capped at 15.5% for GST. Subramanian also had said that the government is committed to bringing petrol and diesel under the ambit of GST.

Gandhi, in his interaction with SMEs, reiterated that his party wants petrol and diesel under the ambit of GST.

Alleging the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA government of crony capitalism, he said: “Today one of the biggest problems of that the entire focus of the government machinery, the entire focus of the banking system, the entire focus of the policy goes toward 10-20 top businessmen.”

Job creation an issue

Gandhi also said that the only way for any government to instil faith among youngsters is to create jobs by competing with China, as the neighbouring country is going to be the prime competitor for next 30 years.

“Job creation will be the central theme in coming years and China will be India’s (prime) competitor for next 30 years. The only way (for any government) to instil faith in government among youngsters is to create jobs by competing with China,” he said in an interaction with businessmen here.

He also said that SMEs have the most important role in job creation in India

“I have no confusion in my mind that the only group of people who can compete with China and generate the number of jobs that India requires is going to come from small and medium enterprises,” Rahul said.