Mumbai: Senior Congress leader and former union finance minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday said demonetisation and GST, the two major financial initiatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party government, have only caused more problems, like unemployment and losses in business. Addressing a meeting of Youth Congress members in Vile Parle he said, “None of the objectives of demonetisation has been served, be it eradication of black money, dealing with the issue of fake currency or developing a cashless economy. Nothing called black money exists.”
Referring to GST as ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’, a phrase recently coined by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Chidambaram said that the move had affected all businesses in the country.
“GST is supposed to be a single tax, but there are eight taxes from zero to 28%. Businesses faced a loss of up to 40% in Diwali. Farmers, vendors, and plumbers who never used computers in their lives are now being asked to file their tax returns online not once but thrice, creating problems,” he said.
Mr. Chidambaram took the opportunity to offer promises of a better future if the Congress was re-elected.
“I assure you that the future government will the correct the mistake and will require 90% traders and businessmen to file tax returns only once in six months. Just because this government has gained a majority does not mean that all the decisions taken by them are correct,” he said.
