MADURAI: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s oft-repeated description of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a “Gabbar Singh tax”, asserting that the reform has benefited people and businesses across India. She said this while speaking at an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants’ Association in Madurai.
Sitharaman pointed out that GST registrations have grown from 65 lakh in 2017 to 1.5 crore at present. Revenues have risen from Rs 7.19 lakh crore to more than Rs 22 lakh crore over the period. “If GST had truly been a cruel burden as alleged, then its registration and revenue base would not have expanded so significantly,” she said.
She also highlighted that decisions in the GST Council were taken collectively by state finance ministers, cutting across party lines. “Contrary to political theatre that misrepresents facts on social media, GST is a collaborative tax reform aimed at transparency and ease of doing business,” she said.
Sitharaman emphasised that GST rate reductions were broad-based, citing that nearly 375 items saw tax cuts during the pandemic period alone. “From four-tier slabs earlier, we have effectively streamlined it to two now. Items like milk and curd are zero-rated, while several daily-use goods have moved from 12% to five per cent. Over 90% of items are taxed at 18% or below, with just a fraction attracting higher rates. Thus, the reform is referred to as ‘tax revolution’,” she said.
Touching upon TN’s role in food production and processing, Sitharaman said the state ranked second nationally, contributing eight per cent to food processing output and hosting 1,100 production units, besides 24,000 small-scale enterprises. With eight products already granted GI tags, she urged the industry to prepare for global competitiveness through digitisation, sustainable packaging, and e-commerce expansion.