Earlier Manmohan Singh termed the GST Bill as game-changer.
The Congress today termed the GST bill as "incomplete", alleging it was against the interests of consumers, industry and farmers and not the one which the party had hoped for.
"We are happy that the GST bill in which we had made a beginning was passed. We wanted an essential bill, it is an incomplete bill," party spokesperson Kapil Sibal said while welcoming the bill. The Congress leader said the party was hoping for passage of a GST Bill that would simplify things for the businessmen and the common man, but the bill passed by Parliament will make things cumbersome for traders and the common people. "We wanted a bill that would bring about 'one market, one tax rate'. But this dream of ours remains unfulfilled," he said.
The criticism came a day after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hailed the bill as a "game-changer". Sibal said the GST proposes four rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent and the maximum rate under it can go up to 55 per cent after including various cesses. Welcoming that farmers were out of the purview of GST, Sibal said if farmers carried out any other business, it would come under the purview of GST.
Pointing to the search and seizure powers provided to taxmen in the bill, the Congress leader said, "Taxmen should not be watching businesses daily. This is no way to deal with business." He talked about Section 171 of GST that talks of action against traders if they do not pass on the benefits to consumers and said the taxmen willbe constantly after the traders once the bill is implemented. Sibal said the party wanted inflation to come down, but the present GST bill may not help in that direction as it has a very high rate of tax percentage.
Asked why Congress is criticising the legislation and why it did not initiate any amendments in the bill as had been done in the case of Finance Bill, he said, the party's stand on GST is "unified". "Of course we support this Bill. All we are saying is it is not the dream Bill we wanted," he said, while taking credit for initiating it. Asked if the bill was anti-people, why amendments were not initiated, he said the amendments would have had no impact as this is a money bill and Rajya Sabha has no powers. Sibal evaded queries on whether Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had engaged Manmohan on the Bill while talking to CPM-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury on moving amendments.
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