Too little, too late: Congress on GST

The Congress on Friday termed the reduction in GST rates as "too little, too late" and said a lot more needs to be done to address concerns of people under the new tax reform measure.

"Too little, too late. Procedural reliefs will not compensate for messing with the basic architecture of GST by Modi Government," said Congress communications incharge Randeep Surjewala.

"Huge opportunity of adding 2 pc to India's GDP squandered away by GST mess amd subsequent half baked rollbacks by panic stricken Modi Government," he added.

Commenting on the GST Council's decisions in a series of tweets, Surjewala said, "Wish that PM/FM could remove blinkers of arrogance to listen to the sane counsel of Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram."

The Congress on its twitter handle also said, "Ironic that government has brought an anti-profiteering bill, but it itself indulges in profiteering with fuel taxes."

It also tweeted, "While we appreciate the government reducing GST rates in some segments, a lot more needs to be done to address concerns of the people."

The party said reduction in number of slabs and complexity of GST regime are yet to be addressed and these are critical for economy's long term health.

"This govt remains clueless about reforms, which are supposed to reduce complexity and remove discretion, arbitrary decision making," it said.

Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said, "I feel pained that when someone tells you the truth, you say pessimism is being spread. We want that all the people of the country should get a proper sleep but that is not happening."

The former Union minister said that it is sad that on every issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in denial, be it on corruption, economy or people losing their jobs.