 "Won't accept 'anti-people' GST Bill: Congress")
Reiterating their stand on the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Congress Party on Saturday said that they would not accept the 'anti-people' Bill as proposed by the BJP-led NDA Government.
"Our leader Rahul Gandhi has made it very clear that we are not going to accept GST which is anti-people, anti-traders and anti-common man," Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said.
"Unless this, the barrier of 16-18% is not removed and there is an independent authority. We are not going to accept it. The BJP wants the GST which is anti-people," he added.
A key government committee, headed by Chief Economic Advisory (CEA) Arvind Subramanian, has suggested a standard GST rate of 17-18%, increasing chances of a consensus on the key reform so that the constitutional amendment that it entails can get passed in the current winter session as the clock ticks down to the April 1 deadline.
The committee has excluded real estate, electricity, alcohol and petroleum products while calculating tax rates, but has suggested to bringing them under the GST ambit soon.
The three demands by the Congress over the Bill are that they want to cap the rate of GST at less than 20%, scrap a proposed state levy and create an independent mechanism to resolve disputes on revenue sharing between states.