GST half-baked, a tamasha: Rahul

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has accused the government of being “insensitive” for rolling out GST without planning, foresight and institutional readiness, as it did during demonetisation. Dubbing the implementation of GST a “tamasha”, he said the reform was being rushed through in a “half-baked” manner as a “self-promotional spectacle”.

Rahul Gandhi, abroad on a holiday, wrote on Twitter, “A reform that holds great potential is being rushed through in a half-baked way with a self-promotional spectacle #GSTTamasha.”

“But like demonetisation, GST is being executed by an incompetent and insensitive government without planning, foresight and institutional readiness,” Gandhi also tweeted.

The GST will replace about 20 central and state taxes such as factory-gate duties, service and local taxes while unifying Asia’s third-largest economy and 1.3 billion people into a single market.

But the system has attracted protests over new tax rates such as 3% for gold, and between 18% and 28% for essential commodities. Small and mediumscale entrepreneurs, traders, weavers and informal sector workers have been protesting across the country over the tax rates.

The Congress vice-president’s reaction on Twitter comes a day after his party, along with the DMK and the Left, decided to skip the midnight launch of GST in Parliament. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress had earlier said they would give the event a miss.

Congress leader Anand Sharma said the GST was conceptualised by the Congress and the BJP stalled it for seven years. “We repeatedly cautioned the government that it is not ‘one-nation, one-tax’, neither is it a perfect Bill,” Sharma said.

Gandhi said India deserves a GST rollout that does not put crores of its ordinary citizens, small businesses and traders through tremendous pain and anxiety. He claimed that unlike demonetisation, GST was a reform that the Congress had championed and backed from the very beginning.