New Delhi, July 1 (FN Agency) The Congress on Friday demanded Centre to replace the present Goods and Services Tax calling it a “flawed and unstable” tax regime that has ruined the Indian middle class in the past five years. “The GST has serious birth ‘defects’. In the last five years, these defects have only become worse. The so-called GST that is enforced today was not the GST envisaged by the UPA government,” Congress MP P Chidambaram said at a press conference here at the party headquarters as the ruling dispensation celebrated the fifth anniversary of GST rollout.The former Union Finance Minister said, “This is a GST that is flawed, defective and unstable. The law is so defective that government had been forced to issue hundreds of directions. In five years, the government had issued 869 notifications, 143 circulars and 38 orders.” “The worst consequence is the complete breakdown of trust between the Centre and the States. It has only deepened the mistrust between them,’ he said stressing on the “chasm” that has only increased under the BJP’s rule at the Centre.
He said, “The GST laws and the manner in their implementation have wrecked the economy. It has led to large scale destruction of the MSMES, a sector that contributes upto 90 per cent of the jobs in the manufacturing sector. The only beneficiaries of the flawed GST are big businesses, CAs and tax lawyers.””As promised in the Congress 2019 election manifesto, we will work for the replacement of the current GST by GST 2.0. Let’s scrap the GST. You have to replace it,” Chidambaram said with an eye on the 2024 elections.”No flexibility in present GST law, no cooperative federalism exists as states are sidelined. Five years of GST mess has affected every aspect of middle class Indians’ life. From shutting businesses to unemployment, to destroying household budgets to taking lives, GST has victimised everyone,” said the Congress leader. Endorsing his party colleague, MP Jairam Ramesh said, “There is no stability in the GST and without it, it cannot be successful.”While Congress GST was envisaged to help small businesses, BJP’s tax regime is illogical, Ramesh pointed out.”
In the last five years, the way the GST Council has worked, it seems it has become a part of the Prime Minister’s Office. The Council works in the direction of the PMO. The demands made by the States are sidelined,” he said.He also brought up the fact that when Congress planned the GST, the council members were not headed by anyone from Congress, but when BJP’s GST was planned it was Sushil Modi who was at the helm.”The government should rethink the GST. We demand an all-party meeting for discussion over GST,’ the Congress leader said.”A SIMPLE tax so complicated that even those who enforced it fail to understand it. Good Simple Tax? Not really,” the Congress party tweeted. “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 a single, low rate,” it said.While the country suffers through the worst economic crisis, the party said “let us remember what brought us here”. “The GST mess of the last five years has resulted in lakhs of MSME’s being forced shut, massive unemployment, and a declining economy.” The losses still pile up, said the party spokesperson.