Provide relief to traders under GST: Surjewala

The Congress today said the Union government should provide relief to shopkeepers and small entrepreneurs under the Goods and Services Tax.
It was stated by Randeep Singh Surjewala, media incharge of All India Congress Committee & Senior Congress Leader, was addressing a 'Vyapar Bachao, Dukandaar Bachao Sammelan' at Safidon in Jind district of Haryana.
Surjewala claimed that tax rate slabs of GST were not fixed while passing the new law in Parliament but the BJP government fixed the tax slab rates through GST Council.
The Congress and other opposition parties were not taken into confidence before deciding the tax rates, he said. He said the new GST regime has unleashed 'Inspector Raj' as it does not have any "safeguards" for the traders and shopkeepers.

Addressing the traders' meeting, Surjewala said the GST proposed by previous Congress government was entirely different than the present GST.
He said that UPA's GST was simple and pro-people in which maximum tax slab was of 18 per cent whereas, the present GST of BJP is "complicated and anti-people".
"BJP's GST is so complicated that the tax-payer shall be entangled in a maze of filing 37 returns every year. The grief of the businessmen can be gauged from the fact that if a tax-payer does his business in 36 States/Union Territories, he shall have to file 1,332 returns in a year," Surjewala said.