NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, hit out at the Centre, saying the government is hiking the rates of the income tax and other taxes for the common man while giving concessions to billionaires.
The Congress leader on Saturday claimed that the Narendra Modi government is “set to introduce another slab of the GST to burden people”.
He said the Congress will continue to oppose this “injustice of imposing higher tax rates on things of daily use and giving concessions to big billionaires”.
“On one hand, the income tax is increasing constantly in comparison to the corporate tax. On the other hand, the Modi government is preparing to collect more money through the Gabbar Singh Tax,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
“It is heard that amidst the ever-increasing collection from the GST, the government is going to introduce a new tax slab — there is a plan to increase the GST on things of daily need. Just think — the wedding season is going on, people must have been saving every penny of their money and in the meantime, the government is going to increase the GST on clothes priced above Rs 1,500 from 12 per cent to 18 per cent,” the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
“This is a grave injustice…taxing the hard-earned money of poor and middle-class families in order to give tax breaks to billionaires and waive their massive debts,” he claimed. “Our fight is against this injustice. We will raise our voice strongly against the burden of taxes on the common people and put pressure on the government to stop this ‘loot’,” the Congress leader added.
Last week, the Congress leader took a swipe at the central government over the dip in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate, which slumped to seven-quarter low of 5.4 per cent.
Criticising the government over the concerning GDP data, the Congress leader claimed that the “Indian economy cannot progress as long as only handful of billionaires are benefitted from it, while the farmers, labourers and middle class are struggling with various economic distresses”.
Rahul Gandhi listed also out the different data to substantiate its claims and said that in the “last five years, the income of laborers, employees and small businessmen has either stagnated or reduced significantly”.
“Retail inflation has risen to a 14-month high of 6.21 per cent. The price of potatoes and onions has increased by almost 50 per cent this year compared to October last year. Rupee has reached its lowest level of 84.50. Unemployment has already broken the record of 45 years,” Rahul Gandhi wrote on X. Rahul Gandhi claimed that demand has also taken a hit due to fall in income.
He said due to measures like demonetisation and introduction of GST, the share of manufacturing in the economy has fallen to its lowest in 50 years.