The Congress on Friday said the GST had serious "birth defects" which became only worse over the last five years since the GST laws and the manner of their implementation have "wrecked the economy" and the party will work toward its replacement by GST 2.0. The Opposition party said demonetisation was the first "Tughlaqi farman" of the Govt while the Goods and Service Tax second that harmed the economy.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said BJP has turned the Congress' “Genuine Simple Tax” into a “Gabbar Singh Tax”, making the GST a nightmare for doing business in India. He said his party would bring a single and low-rate regime GST 2.0 and will share the collections fairly with states. His remarks came as the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime completes five years of implementation on July 1.
"Congress' Genuine Simple Tax was turned into Gabbar Singh Tax by the BJP. Six rates, 1000 plus changes in 1,826 days! Ease? It's a nightmare to do business, especially for MSMEs," Rahul said on Twitter. "Cong will revive business and jobs with GST 2.0 - single, low rate, shared fairly with States," he said using the hashtag #5YearsofGSTMess.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the GST "celebrates" its fifth birthday on Friday but there is nothing really to celebrate. "The GST had serious birth defects. In the last five years these defects have only become worse and all those touched by GST have been seriously injured," the senior Congress leader said at the AICC Press conference.
"The GST that we have today is a complex web of many rates, conditions, exceptions and exemptions that will leave even an informed taxpayer completely bewildered. Not all registered dealers are informed taxpayers; as a result, they are at the mercy of the tax-collector," he said.
A flawed GST has led to "large-scale destruction" of MSMEs, a sector that contributes up to 90 per cent of the jobs in the manufacturing sector, he said.
"As far as the Congress Party is concerned, we reject the current GST and, as promised in the Election Manifesto of 2019, we will work toward the replacement of the current GST by GST 2.0 that will be single, low-rate," Chidambaram said.