Reason for historic decline in GDP is Govt’s Gabbar Singh Tax: Rahul Gandhi

Continuing his attacks on the Central government regarding the economic situation in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that one of the major reason for the “historic decline in Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is the Gabbar Singh Tax (GST) of the Modi government”.

The Congress leader’s remarks came in the third video of his new series titled “how the Modi government has destroyed Indian economy” in which he said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s Gross Service Tax (GST) is not a tax system but it is an attack on India’s poor.

“Another major reason for the historic decline in GDP is the Gabbar Singh Tax (GST) of the Modi government. It destroyed many things like- Millions of small businesses, the future of millions of jobs and youth and the economic situation of states. GST means economic apocalypse,” he said on Twitter (translated from Hindi) and posted a video along with it.

India’s GDP growth rate dropped to -23.9 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal due to Covid-19 induced lockdown.

Explaining his views in the video, the Congress leader said, “GST is the second attack on the informal sector of the economy. GST was UPA’s idea which professed that there will one tax, least tax, and a simple tax. But NDA’s GST is completely different in which there are four different types of taxes and up to 28 per cent tax. It is complicated and not easy to be understood by many. The small and medium businesses cannot file their taxes under NDA’s GST. But the big companies can easily file it after getting help from 5 to 15 accountants.”

“There are 4 types of rates because the government wants those who have the reach and resources can manipulate the system. Those who do not have reach and resources can not do anything. Who are resourceful? 15 to 20 corporates and whatever changes they want, they can change under this GST regime,” he added.

Congress leader alleged that the result of NDA’s GST is that for the first time, the Central government is unable to give money to States collected through tax.

“What is the result of NDA’s GST? For the first time, the Central government is unable to give money collected by GST to the States. All state governments are unable to pay to teachers and other employees. So, GST has failed. It is an attack on the poor and MSMEs. GST is not a tax system it is an attack on India’s poor, farmers, shopkeepers. We have to identify the attack and we have to stand up against it,” he said.

In the second video released on September 3, Rahul Gandhi had said that demonetisation was an attack on India’s informal sector which mainly included poor labourers, farmers and small shopkeepers.

In the first video released on August 31, the former Congress chief alleged that the NDA government has been attacking the informal sector over the past 6 years and asserted that the aim of demonetisation, “wrong” Goods and Services Tax (GST) and lockdown is to destroy this sector.