Congress, JDS mounts attack on Centre over 5% GST on essential items

BENGALURU: Opposition Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) on Monday slammed the Centre over 5 per cent GST on packaged products including cereals, pulses, flour, curd, lassi, puffed rice and other products with effect from Monday. Opposition leader in the State Assembly Siddaramaiah said the Centre that has reduced the corporate tax from 30 per cent to 22 per cent has increased taxes on the products used by middle and lower middle-class people.

The Central government’s decision will be a big burden on the unemployed, farmers, daily wagers and street vendors and the state governments is supporting such a move, he said. Farmers are complaining about the shortage of fertilizers, but the state and the central government are not talking about problems faced by farmers, he said. Siddaramaiah said the BJP has failed to even fulfill 20 per cent of the promises made to people before the assembly elections.

The former CM said as the opposition party, Congress will continue to protest against the ‘anti-people’ policies. Responding to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s remarks that the sellers could claim the reimbursement and there is no need to hike the prices, the former CM said if there is a scope for reimbursement why the GST was imposed at all?.

State Congress president DK Shivakumar termed price rise as a ‘gift’ by the Narendra Modi government, while Congress leader and former minister Priyank Kharge called it a ‘tax terrorism’. Kharge said the central government has failed in the implementation of the GST. Former CM and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy termed the imposition of a 5 per cent tax on packaged products including cereals, pulses, flour, curd and lassi as an ‘anti-people’.