Modi govt panicked; measures on GST 'too little, too late', says Congress

The Congress on Friday termed the reduction in GST rates as "too little, too late" and said a lot more needs to be done to address concerns of people under the new tax reform measure.

"Too little, too late. Procedural reliefs will not compensate for messing with the basic architecture of GST by Modi Government," said Congress communications incharge Randeep Surjewala.



"Huge opportunity of adding 2 pc to India's GDP squandered away by GST mess amd subsequent half baked rollbacks by panic stricken Modi Government," he added.



Commenting on the GST Council's decisions in a series of tweets, Surjewala said, "Wish that PM/FM could remove blinkers of arrogance to listen to the sane counsel of Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram."

The GST Council on Friday took major decisions to prevent working capital of exporters from getting locked up and reduce the compliance burden on small and medium enterprises, while reducing rates on 27 items of daily use, including khakhra, which may help the ruling party, the BJP, in poll-bound Gujarat. (Read more about the GST Council meeting's outcome)

It deferred implementing the controversial e-way Bill and the reverse charge mechanism.

The Council also postponed imposing tax deducted or collected at source, which will particularly benefit e-commerce companies. It also decided to set up a committee to frame principles to reduce rates, depending on revenue patterns of the GST so that no ad hoc decision was taken, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who chaired the Council meeting.

On its twitter handle, the Congress also said, "Ironic that government has brought an anti-profiteering bill, but it itself indulges in profiteering with fuel taxes."



It also tweeted, "While we appreciate the government reducing GST rates in some segments, a lot more needs to be done to address concerns of the people."



The party said the reduction in the number of slabs and complexity of the GST regime were yet to be addressed and these were critical for the economy's long-term health.



"This govt remains clueless about reforms, which are supposed to reduce complexity and remove discretion, arbitrary decision making," it said.



Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal said, "I feel pained that when someone tells you the truth, you say pessimism is being spread. We want that all the people of the country should get a proper sleep but that is not happening."

The former Union minister said that it is sad that on every issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in denial, be it on corruption, economy or people losing their jobs.