Uttarakhand: Congress lashed out at GST reform, said- ‘By imposing Gabbar Singh tax, they sucked the blood of the public for 8 years’
Congress state president Karan Mahara and Mangaluru MLA Qazi Nizamuddin have cornered the central and state governments on GST reform. MLA Qazi said that the central government had brought GST with so much hype that a Parliament session had to be called for it at night. The nation was celebrated a lot for bringing GST by talking about One Nation One Tax and second freedom, but in reality the public was harassed.
The entire country suffered the brunt of GST policy: Mangaluru MLA Qazi Nizamuddin said that Prime Minister Modi has always had the habit of taking decisions in a hurry. It was the result of that that the entire country had to suffer the brunt of Modi government’s GST policy.
He said that Rahul Gandhi had openly opposed the GST policy in the year 2016 and called it ‘Gabbar Singh’ tax, but now even the Government of India and the GST Council have accepted that it was indeed ‘Gabbar Singh’ tax. This means that for the last 8 years, the central government kept looting people’s pockets through GST and kept sucking their blood.
He said that GST was introduced without any preparation and arbitrary taxes were imposed. GST 1 broke the back of the economy of small states, especially the Himalayan states. Similarly, GST 2 twisted the neck of small states. The tax autonomy of the state was completely centralized. After which the state governments were left with no other means to impose tax on liquor and petroleum products.
He said that if we talk in the context of Uttarakhand, the economy has deteriorated due to the closure of many factories in these 8 years. Apart from this, many small and medium industries under MSME have closed. All this happened due to wrong tax policies. In such a situation, the government should work to provide relief to them. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand has also faced massive unemployment after the implementation of GST.
Demand to call GST Council meeting in Gairsain: Congress State President Karan Mahara has raised the demand to organize a meeting of the GST Council in Gairsain, the summer capital of Uttarakhand. He said that representatives of nine Himalayan states should be included in this meeting. So that, the GST Council can know what problems the high Himalayan states are facing.
“To improve the economy of the Himalayan states, increase the income of the hill states, meet out the expenses, it is necessary that the meeting of nine Himalayan states should be held in Gairsain. So that the voice of these states can reach the central government.”
- Karan Mahara, Congress State President, Uttarakhand
