Will impose one GST-slab, if voted to power: Rahul Gandhi
Congress President Rahul Gandhi today said if his party comes to power, it would impose one slab of Goods and Services Tax instead of five and abolish the 28% GST slab. Responding to a question during an interaction with students at Maharani's College in Mysuru, Gandhi said Congress's position on GST is very clear, adding, "We are absolutely against the 28% tax." Here's more.
Why doesn't India have free healthcare despite imposing 28% GST?
During the interaction, a student, Afreen, asked Rahul Gandhi why there was free healthcare in Singapore even though they have only one GST slab of 7%, which India lacks despite having 28% GST. Replying to her, he said PM Narendra Modi would be better positioned to answer. He, however, told her that Congress favored one GST as multiple slabs encourage corruption.
GST was Congress's idea; we're against 28% tax slab: RaGa
"GST is basically the Congress party's idea, but our thinking was that as in Singapore there is one GST of 7%, similarly there should be one tax but BJP government imposed five different slabs," Rahul said. "Our system was that the products used by weaker sections should be kept out of the purview of GST and then have one tax for all," he added.
The difference between BJP's and Congress's GST concept
"In terms of conceptualization, there is a difference between their (BJP's) GST and our (Congress) GST. If our government comes to power, we will abolish 28% GST and impose one GST across India," Gandhi said. The Congress President also claimed that the existing GST encourages corruption and alleged that the government would use it to favor or hurt any businessman.
Five-layered GST is Gabbar Singh Tax: Gandhi
"If you do a five-layered GST, you will not have GST, you will have a Gabbar Singh Tax. What it means is there will be extortion and there will be a lot of mischief to decide which bracket what product should go," Gandhi said.
PM Modi's doing nothing to bring black-money from abroad: Gandhi
Gandhi accused PM Modi of doing nothing to bring back black money stashed abroad. He said the Centre has the list of those having Swiss bank accounts, but it is reluctant to table the list of black money hoarders in Parliament. The government's focus shouldn't be 5% of cash stashed abroad, but the focus should be Swiss Bank, gold, and real estate, Gandhi said.
Congress govt took steps to check corruption, black money
Rahul said transparency alone could check corruption and black money and the Congress government had taken certain steps like Right to Information. He said defaulters like Nirav Modi and others were getting exposed because of transparency, empowering citizens, Panchayati Raj, Lokpal, and decentralization of power.
