CHANDIGARH: Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Saturday called the BJP’s five-tiered GST (Goods & Services Tax) cumbersome and said that it would adversely affect shopkeepers, traders, and farmers. He said that the BJP government had imposed the highest-ever tax rate in the world, unlike the Congress-led UPA which had put a cap of 18%.
Surjewala was addressing a traders’ meet under the aegis of ‘Vyapar Bachao - Dukandar Bachao’ at Panipat organized to protest against the GST on the first day of its implementation in the country. Surjewala said, “GST in current form will be a body blow to farmers, textile sector, small and medium businesses and will lead to inflation. Also, UPA’s GST was simple and transparent, while BJP’s GST is a complicated maze of multi-tier tax structure requiring 37 Returns to be filed by every taxpayer per year. In case, a taxpayer is doing business in all the 36 states and Union Territories, as many as 1,332 Returns have to be filed, which is shocking.’’
The Congress leader said that the textile sector was the second biggest job generator after agriculture and it was hit the hardest by the distorted duty structure of GST. He questioned the government’s motive in taxing all aspects of ‘Roti, Kapda and Makaan’ so high.
BJP says GST is pivotal tax reform
Terming the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the most pivotal tax reform ever initiated in the country, Punjab Bhartiya Janata Party’s state executive member Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina on Saturday hailed the new tax regime which he said will end ‘tax terror’ by ending the prevailing ‘Inspector Raj’. He said the new taxation would usher in a new era of development, growth and progress as he praised Prime Minister Narender Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the ‘bold decision’.