BJP putting up false smoke screen on GST: Congress

Hitting back at BJP for its allegation that the main opposition party was "not serious" about GST, Congress today ripped into Modi government saying it was putting up a "false smoke screen" and its attitude on GST was marked by "deception, deceit and doublespeak".
"BJP government, including Prime Minister and Finance Minister, has been putting up false smoke screen by accusing Congress for obstructing GST, while the truth is that GST stands consistently red-flagged for last nine years by RSS and Swadeshi Jagran Manch.
"BJP government has resorted to misleading and dramatic optics to masquerade its mal-intent rather than sincere operationalisation of GST in the interest of people of India," party spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil told reporters at the AICC briefing.

The Congress leader also furnished a number of purported documents to show that under Modi's chief ministership, Gujarat "consistently and bitterly opposed the GST".
"Between the years 2007 to 2014, 54 meetings of 'Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers' were held. In each meeting, Modi-led Gujarat government not only opposed the Constitutional amendment comprising GST Bill but also described it against the federal spirit of Constitution as also the rights of states to fiscal autonomy," he alleged.
Gohil also read out portions from BJP manifesto of 2009 Lok Sabha polls, in which the party had purportedly said that the Central Sales Tax (CST) will be abolished and Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be rationalised between 12 to 14 per cent while Fringe benefit tax (FBT) will go.

"What completely exposes the doublespeak of BJP is the fact that in the 2009 election manifesto, BJP itself had suggested a maximum taxation cap of 12 per cent to 14 per cent," Gohil said whose party is insisting on putting a 18 per cent cap on GST in Constitution.

Gohil alleged that Modi, Jaitely and the entire BJP are ideologically opposed to a universal GST regime in India as an engine for economic growth.
"Modi and BJP government are now camouflaging the paralysis of governance failure of leadership over last 19 months to misguide people by stating that current day grave economic crisis as also deflation of economy is happening because GST has not been cleared.

"Double speak, deception and red herring of BJP's leadership, particularly Prime Minister, Modi is opposing GST, is borne out from overwhelming documentary evidence," Gohil said.
Gohil's counter attack on BJP happened a day after the ruling party accused Congress of being not serious about the GST, and said the opposition party's priority was "development and protection of its ruling family".
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Gohil said that the government did not come out with any concrete response to the three demands made by Congress when Naidu met Gandhi.
"Naidu only said the government wants that GST should be supported by Congress. Sonia ji asked him to come out with the government's final position on three issues. At this, Naidu said that he will apprise the Prime Minister about it and will get back to her. Had Government wanted to pass the GST bill, it would have come out with a clear response.

"Modi government has no interest in passing the GST bill. It is interested only in doing politics on GST. It only wants to do vote bank politics on GST. We are very clear. Let the government accept our three demands today and call a Parliament session and pass the bill tomorrow. The ball is in their court," he said.
Asking the Prime Minister BJP to stop "hoodwinking, misleading and pulling wool over the eyes of nation" on the issue of GST and economic reforms, Gohil cited a number instances when the government opposed the GST.
He said that on April 8, 2010, Modi-led Gujarat government made detailed written submissions before Empowered Committee opposing GST and stated the GST fundamentally alters powers of the states to levy and collect indirect taxes.

Quoting from the speech of then Finance Minister of Gujarat government Sourabh Patel in almost half a dozen meetings of the Empowered Committee, the Congress leader said that the minister had then said that he found it difficult to agree to wide-ranging powers given to GST council and that the Gujarat government did not support the proposed constitutional amendment in its present form.
Gujarat government also said in other meetings that the new constitutional amendment draft proposed by the GoI was retrograde in nature and completely against the tenets of fiscal federalism and therefore, Gujarat did not support the proposed constitutional amendment in its present form, the Congress spokesperson said.

BJP has castigated Congress over its remarks on GST reminding it that Modi had earlier also reached out to Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but Congress was "never serious" about supporting the bill.