Cong insulted PM by calling GST as Gabbar Singh Tax: BJP

Accusing the Congress of being far from ground reality, the BJP Tuesday said by calling the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as 'Gabbar Singh Tax', the party had insulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The Congress leadership does not know about the issues faced by traders and had unleashed inspector raj to harass them. On the contrary Modi ji thinks about the welfare of traders," Ravikant Garg, chairperson of UP Vyapari Kalyan Board told PTI here.

"What is the relevance of calling GST as Gabbar Singh Tax. Is it (tax money) going into Modi ji's pocket? You are insulting the prime minister by making such statement," he added.

The opposition parties have spread fear and misguided the people by portraying GST as an evil whereas it has given relief to the traders and businessmen, Garg said.

"In the past there were 9 central taxes, and 12 taxes levied by the UP government. Initially the traders may have faced teething trouble, as they were not used to it, but the problems were technical in nature. As soon as the problems were conveyed to the government, the GST council redressed them," he said.

The UP Vyapari Kalyan Board functions as a link between the state government and businessmen and solves the problems faced by traders and entrepreneurs within a fixed time, he said.

Referring to the BJP's 2019 Sankalp Patra, he said that if the party is voted to power, small traders and marginal farmers will get pension benefits after 60 years of age.

"Sankalp Patra talks about setting up a National Traders Welfare Board, new retail policy to boost retail trade, pension scheme for small traders above the age of 60 years, Rs 10 lakh accidental insurance to all GST-registered traders and credit cards to traders on the lines of Kisan Credit Cards," he said.