Goverment measures on GST too little, too late: Congress

The Congress on Friday said that measures announced by the Narendra Modi government to ease concerns over Goods and Services Tax were "too little, too late" and procedural reliefs will not compensate for messing with the basic architecture of GST.

Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said, in a series of tweets, that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should have listened to the sane advice given by party Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

"#GSTCouncilMeet Too little, too late. Procedural reliefs will not compensate for messing with the basic architecture of GST by Modi Govt," Surjewala said.

"Huge opportunity of adding 2% to India's GDP squandered away by GST mess & subsequent half baked rollbacks by panic stricken Modi Govt.

"Wish that PM/FM could remove blinkers of arrogance to listen to the sane counsel of @OfficeofRG, Dr Manmohan Singh & @Pchidambaram," he added.

Rahul Gandhi had said earlier in the day that petrol and diesel should be brought under the GST regime to prevent excessive profiteering. He had called for correcting "distorted" structure concerning textiles, making GST simpler and the processing of filing of returns easy.

The government, which faced severe criticism over the implementation of GST, on Friday night announced a slew of measures to ease the concerns of traders, exporters and small business while slashing the rates on 27 items of common consumption, including roti, khakra, namkeens, stationery, man-made yarn -- with most of them brought to five per cent category.

--IANS

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