DAINIK NATION BUREAU
The AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said it was good that the Modi government had been forced to slash the Goods and Service Tax (GST) by three quarters. India doesn’t need five different slabs of GST but one single tax. He has demanded structural reform in the present GST.
Gandhi scion, who is on visit to North Gujarat, the home state of PM Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah, said the decision to slash the GST by three quarters was a good one. “It is good that the Congress party and the people of this country forced BJP to bring down many items from 28 per cent bracket to 18 per cent. Although we are not happy and we will not stop. India does not need five different taxes but one tax. GST needs structural change.”
The state is schedule to face two phase of Assembly election i.e. December 9 and 14. Gujarat, the BJP bastion over the years, is on a three-day visit to the state. Alpesh Thakore, leader of the Other Backward Castes (OBC), Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST), OSS Ekta Manch, who has been inducted in the grand old party’s Gujarat unit, was accompanying Gandhi during his visit. In his address Thakore said “BJP will scare you, fool you. Then Modiji will come, cry for Gujarat pride. Don’t get carried away this time.”
At other places during his visit to the places in the region like Idar and Himmatnagar, Gandhi continued his attacks on Prime Minister Modi over Amit Shah’s son Jay’s company allegedly registering 16,000 turnover in one year. He said, “Modiji Kuch Toh Boliye (Modiji, please say something).”
“The government which can tell the people of the country at 8 p.m. that their currency will turn into scrap in just four hours, doesn’t know what’s in the hearts of the people. We gave Rs 35,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Agency (MNREGA), but Modi gave Rs 35,000 crore to Tata Nano project” he added.
As Rahul Gandhi’s bus entered into Himmatnagar for the meeting, a group of 10-12 youngsters came bearing black flags to oppose his visit, but they managed because the bus moved on.
During this visit, Rahul will visit 19 state assembly seats of north Gujarat. In which 10 out of 19 are held by the Congress while the rest nine are with the BJP. There are total 32 assembly seats in north Gujarat, where during the last assembly elections, the Congress won 18 and the rest 14 were captured by the saffron party.