View economic slide through prism of people’s suffering: Rahul Gandhi to PM Modi

Rahul Gandhi (Source: Twitter)

The Congress on Friday stepped up its offensive against the government over its handling of the economy, with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to view the slide in GDP growth and “GST mess” through the prism of lessening the suffering of people rather than furthering electoral interests. He also asked the government to make GST “good and simple beyond rhetoric”. Calling for changes in the GST structure, Rahul demanded that petrol and diesel be brought under the ambit of GST. He argued that agriculture is in deep distress because pesticides, fertilisers, tractors, agricultural equipment, cold storage and warehouse construction are taxed under GST.

“Wish Modiji viewed economic slide and GST mess from prism of solving suffering of people than furthering electoral interests. Then, first step would be to bring petrol/diesel under GST to prevent excessive profiteering from common man as Government of India alone earns Rs 273000 crore,” he said in a series of tweets.

“Textiles, the second biggest job generator yearns for correcting distorted GST structure. Traders, MSMEs, small businesses suffer and cronies profit. Agriculture in deep distress as pesticides, fertilizers, tractors, agricultural equipment, cold storage and warehouse construction taxed under GST. Time to correct the ‘One Nation, Seven Tax’, multiple form filing and draconian power of taxman. Make it ‘Good’ & ‘Simple’ beyond rhetoric,” he said.

The Congress released what it called video conversations with Rahul in which he again claimed that 30,000 youths were coming into the job market every day out of which only 450 were getting jobs, “creating an army of unemployed youngsters — one million a month”. “If you are unable to give youngsters jobs, they are going to get angry. And that anger is manifesting in many different ways. You can see it in the farms, factories and you can see it everywhere. And it is not something which is good for India. It is dangerous for India, it will lead to violence and you can actually see the violence beginning.”