New Delhi:
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi demanded on Friday that petrol and diesel be brought under the Goods and Services Tax regime to prevent “excessive profiteering”.
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,” 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 Rs 2,73,000 crore.”
His statement came on a day when the GST Council met to give relief to small and medium enterprises and exporters.
In a video message on the Congress Twitter handle, 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 prime minister to focus on job creation.
Gandhi 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.
“This will be dangerous for the country,” he said.
Gandhi accused the government of “attacking” these small and medium businesses first through demonetisation and then through the GST.
“Instead of helping them, the government is attacking them... These are brutal attacks on these sectors which will wipe them out. Without respecting these sectors you cannot get jobs... For employment generation, small and informal sectors need to be helped,” he said.
The Congress leader alleged that the government was spending all its energies on big businesses but neglecting the small and medium sectors.
On Twitter, he said the textiles sector is the second biggest job generator that yearns for correcting the “distorted” GST structure.
“Traders, MSMEs, small businesses suffer and cronies profit,” Gandhi said.
