Bring fuel under GST regime, says Congress

New Delhi: Before the GST council meeting concluded in New Delhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi tweeted his wish list for the GST. Mr Gandhi demanded that fuel should come under the ambit of GST to prevent “excessive profiteering”.

He also demanded relief for small businesses, and MSMEs. Lastly, he wanted goods and services associated with agriculture to be corrected in the GST.

He also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not view the new tax reform to further electoral interests. “Time to correct the ‘One Nation, Seven Tax’, multiple form filing and draconian power of taxman. Make it ‘Good’ and ‘Simple’ beyond rhetoric,” Mr Gandhi said on Twitter.

In a series of tweets, he said, “Wish Modiji viewed economic slide and GST mess from prism of solving suffering of people than furthering electoral interests.” The Congress leader said, “Then, 1st step would be to bring Petrol/Diesel under GST to prevent excessive profiteering from common man as GOI alone earns `2,73,000 crore.”

In a video message on the Congress Twitter handle, Mr Gandhi asked the government to support small and medium businesses and the informal sector to create jobs and “not unleash taxmen on them”.

He asked the PM to focus on job creation. Rahul said around 30,000 youth are demanding jobs and only 450 get them everyday, thereby creating an army of 10 lakh unemployed youth a month. He warned that the youth, farmers and small businessmen are getting angry at the government and this is not good for the country.

The GST Council, however, gave relief in filing returns for the small, MSME and traders who have a turnover of `1 crore. Taxation rates on diesel engine parts, man made yarn, parts of diesel pumps, parts of water pumps was reduced. However agricultural equipments were not touched by the GST council.

However there was no discussion in bringing fuel under the ambit of GST in the near future. Also, pesticides, fertilizers. Cold storage and warehouse construction still remains taxed under the GST. The Congress Vice President wanted the items exempted or relaxed under the GST regime. Apart from certain relaxations on filings by MSME and small traders and some reductions in duties his demands were not met

As GST was termed as one nation one tax Mr. Gandhi took a dig at the government and tweeted that GST should not become One Nation Seven taxes. The Congress has been critical of the economic policies of the government. Mr. Gandhi urged the Prime Minister to view ‘economic slide and GST mess from a prism of solving suffering of people rather than furthering electoral interests’.