PTI
New Delhi
Congress Wednesday claimed in the Rajya Sabha that the “real opposition” to the long-pending GST bill was coming from within the government and that the main opposition was ready to give full support to it provided its three key recommendations are accepted.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also questioned the credibility of the current GDP growth figure of 7.6 per cent, claiming that nobody believes these numbers as they are “suspicious”.
The former minister asked the government to come out with “credible” GDP figures and suggested setting up a committee under the chairmanship of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
The Congress member insisted that his party wants GST and that it was ready to give full support to the government if its three suggestions are incorporated in the bill.
“We have three suggestions. One is setting up of independent committee to adjudicate disputes, elimination of one per cent tax and introduction of capping ...If consensus on these three is arrived, we are ready to support,” he said.
On capping upper limit for GST, Ramesh said the government says this cannot be accepted as there is no provision in the Constitution for this purpose. But the Article 276 (2) provides for capping and “with creative use of language” the government can accomodate.
Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) attacked the government over its economic policies, accusing it of promoting crony capitalism and ruining the state of economy with “very fanciful slogans.” “We have heard very fanciful slogans but the state of economy is in a state of sleep, Make-in-India is Destroy India...Digital India is Robotic India,” he said.
He contended that additional mobilisation of Rs 27,670 crore indirect taxes will impoverish the poor and forego of Rs 1,060 crore direct taxes will benefit the rich.
The state of affairs is such that barely 2.9 crore Indians file IT returns, which is less than 4 per cent adults in the country while barely about 18,000 have declared their income above Rs 1 crore which doesn't match up to the sale of luxury cars, high-end gadgets and gold in the country, he said.
Yechury said it is unfortunate that this government is not collecting “legitimately-due Rs 13 lakh crore including Rs 7 lakh crore which has been raised but not realised and more than Rs 6 lakh crore of NPAs.” Had this amount been collected, it could have given employment to lakhs of youth, he said.
He also lamented that 100 billionaires in the country accounted for more than Rs 62,000 crore which is one-third of India's GDP whereas in 90 per cent of the families, bread earners barely earned Rs 10,000 a month.
“This government is promoting crony capitalism with the state of economy in being a dismal stage,” he said and quoted Wall Street Journal about “India's fudged growth data.” Demanding to know where the 2 crore jobs are as promised by the BJP government, he said the job creation was at its worst, impacting all sectors including the IT.
