With the Government keen on rolling out Goods and Service Taxes (GST) on April 1, 2016, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said here on Saturday that the GST Bill could be passed in Parliament in just “15 minutes” if the NDA Government accepted the terms set by his party.
“We don’t want a GST where there is no cap on taxes. We do not want taxes that are imposed on you that fly into the sky... The day the condition of cap on taxes, the day the dispute resolution is accepted and it is the day we will pass the GST Bill. It will take just 15 minutes (to pass the Bill),” Rahul said, while interacting with the B-school students of the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) here.
Extending his party’s conditional support to the NDA Government on the GST Bill, Rahul reiterated that there should be a cap on GST rates, a dispute resolution mechanism should be in place and the one per cent inter-state tax be done away with.
In his elaboration of the Congress’ stand on the GST Bill, Rahul said: “Dispute resolution must be fair and neutral. I don’t think it is wrong of us to say that”.
Accusing the BJP of stalling the FST Bill in the past, Rahul said: “It was the Congress which brought in GST, (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley then did not allow it to pass. (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat opposed it”.
Singling out Jaitely for criticism on the GST Bill issue, the Congress vice president said: “Jaitley doesn’t have to tell me GST is good. I know its good. He doesn’t have to tell me it is good.... Jaitley had earlier said in an interview in England that it was the strategy of BJP to block Parliament. It is not the strategy of Congress to block Parliament”.
Debunking the Modi Government’s ambitious start-up mission, Rahul said that there was a contradiction in pushing for start-ups and being “intolerant”. “Start-ups require an eco system where free ideas can flow. Real challenge is to create an environment to ensure small businesses can grow. Start-up entrepreneurs are creative people. Intolerance and start-ups can’t go together”.
He said the RSS had a very “rigid vision” for India and that the start-ups required free movement of ideas.
Dwelling upon economy and start-ups, the Congress vice president said: “If you want to lead institutions, if and solve problems: don’t set rigid boundaries for yourself, don’t get trapped in narrow definitions...Agriculture, industry, start-ups are all connected to each other…agriculture has become volatile. Our strategy was to provide adequate MSP to farmers, create a floor by bringing NREGA and programmes that helped poor….sadly our current government has lost focus, they are not focussing on farmers, they are actually putting pressure on them”.
Rahul, who began the second day of a two-tour of Mumbai through an interactions with the B-students (NMIMS), undertook a 5-km padayatra from Bandra Bandstand to Dharavi slum.
The padayatra, which had been organised by the Congress to register its protest against the “high” electric tariff in the metropolis, evoked enthusiastic response from the party activists and leaders, with several thousands of them joining him in the march.
Slamming the Modi Government for the lop-sided manner in which it had dwelt with the Pathankot terror strike, Rahul said: “The attack on Pathankot is being handled by the National Security Advisor. That is not his job...the NSA’s job is not to develop tactics but build strategy. The Modi Government is not consulting the best people to deal with foreign affairs.”
Drawing comparisons between China and India, Rahul said: Why do the people are suspicious of ChinaIJ On the contrary, no one is suspicious of India... China applies its force in a different way than India does. So China’s power is centralised. China grabs power. You can see exactly the power that China has. On the other hand, India is decentralised. India grabs you but you do not get to know it has grabbed you. We show power in different ways. India’s power has never been military. India’s power has always come from the strength of our ideas.. from our ability to convince the other person”.
Taking an apparent pot shot at Jaitley over the DDCA issue, Rahul said in reply to a question from a student: “Politicians should not be anywhere near sports administration bodies. Cricket should be run by cricketers”.
Talking to media persons after visiting Dharavi, Rahul took a dig at Modi for his “Make in India” initiative and asked the Prime Minister to visit Asia’s biggest slum located in the heart of Mumbai and see for himself how entrepreneurship worked there.
“Modiji you should first come here in Dharavi (which houses hundreds of small—scale industries) and see the kind of entrepreneurial works that takes place here. First complete Make in Dharavi, then only Make in India would bear fruit,” Rahul said.
“People of Dharavi are capable of doing wonders as far as manufacturing (the focus of Make in India campaign) is concerned,” the Congress vice president.
Attacking the NDA government on the price rise and fuel hike issues, Rahul demanded to know from the Centre as to why the rates of essential commodities were skyrocketing at a time when oil prices were at record low in international market.
“When UPA Government was in power, the petrol price (in global market) was USD 150 a barrel. Now this has come down to USD 29 per barrel. I want to know where have these lakhs of crores of money, which have been saved on account of lower oil prices, have goneIJ Why the prices of pulses have shot up to Rs 230 a kgIJ” he asked.
“This is happening because the Modi Government’s polices are benefiting only top 2 to 3 industrialists of the country. ...When our Government was in power, we worked for the benefit of the common people,” Rahul said.