Gandhi vows to reform ‘sales tax’ as poll nears
IS commander killed: US
NEW DELHI, Jan 13, (Agencies): India’s main opposition Congress party will simplify the goods and services tax (GST) and take “rational economic decisions” to attract foreign investment if voted back to power in a general election due by May, its leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday.
Launched in 2017, the GST was initially hailed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s biggest economic reform as it replaced more than a dozen federal and state levies and unified Asia’s third largest economy.
But its chaotic implementation and complexities months after a shock ban by Modi on high value bank currency aimed at unearthing untaxed wealth – badly hurt small businesses and led to millions of job losses in the cash-driven economy, presenting the biggest challenge to Modi’s re-election chances.
Gandhi, scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, said during a visit to Dubai that foreign investment was at a multi-year low in India due to the “ill-advised and badly thought out economic moves” such as the currency ban and a “poorly designed GST”.
“We will take some rational economic decisions,” he told a press conference, which was broadcast live on Twitter. “We will restructure the GST and we will embrace investments from the Middle East and other parts of the world. We are the party of (India’s economic) liberalisation, we are the party that gave the fastest economic growth in the first decade of the century, and will do that again.”
He said his main priority would be to create jobs, simplify the GST, rebuild confidence in institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India – whose governor resigned recently after a fight over autonomy with the government, and the Supreme Court.
Four Supreme Court judges held a rare press conference early last year saying that “unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country”. (RTRS)
Modi
16 injured in Kashmir protests:
Massive anti-India protests and clashes erupted in disputed Kashmir on Sunday, leading to injuries to at least 16 people after a gun-battle between militants and government forces overnight killed two rebels, police and residents said.
The clashes erupted after government forces in the southern Shopian area tried to stop mourners from attending the funeral of one of India’s most wanted rebels in the Himalayan region, police said.
Rebel commander Zeenatul Islam was killed along with his associate late Saturday in a gun-battle with Indian troops. (AP)
‘IS commander killed in Afghanistan’:
A senior commander of the Islamic State militant group was killed in Afghanistan in a raid, US Forces Afghanistan said on Saturday.
Khetab Emir was killed in the raid on Jan 10 in the eastern area of Nangarhar province, said Lt Ubon Mendie, a spokesman for the US forces based in Afghanistan.
Emir, who was known by multiple names, facilitated high-profile attacks and supplied Islamic State fighters with weapons and materials to make explosives, Mendie said in a statement. (RTRS)