Celebrity endorsements won't help GST implementation: Congress

Congress on Wednesday said that celebrity endorsements are not going to help roll out or facilitate implementation of the upcoming GST as it evaded a direct reply whether megastar Amitabh Bachchan should refrain from acting as its brand ambassador as the party's Mumbai unit had demanded.

"Let us wait and see as to what happens after the July 1. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Celebrity endorsements are not going to help roll out or the implementation of the GST. What is really going to be the test of the GST is its impact on the common people," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari when asked about implementation of GST.

On a question on GST being endorsed by Amitabh, he said: "The Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be implemented from the July 1. The impact of any tax or the true index of the impact of any tax is the people of India. So, let us wait for July 1 and its succeeding weeks and months and everything will become clear."

Tewari also said it was strange that those who were claiming credit that they brought the GST, were the ones who opposed it earlier.

"UPA government initiated GST and those who are claiming credit for GST today, they should go and read former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's press conference in January 2011.

"He had categorically stated that some opposition parties are holding GST to ransom primarily because they want criminal cases against some of their leaders to be withdrawn," he said.

"We have no difficulty with GST. We have supported it and because of our support, the GST would become a reality. There are concerns with regard to implementation. Those concerns have been articulated and expressed by economists, by various other people who understand fiscal policy and taxation structure."

The Congress' Mumbai unit on Wednesday asked Amitabh to refrain from acting as the Brand Ambassador for the GST, with its chief Sanjay Nirupam seeking to caution the megastar that he was being "used".

--IANS

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