Lok Sabha polls: Congress assures better GST norms if voted to power in 2019

Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said that Congress-led government at the Centre in 2019 would launch a comprehensive redesign of the current architecture of the GST.

Manifesto drafting committee of Congress has prepared a revamped format of GST. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: With few months left for the much-awaited Lok Sabha polls, Congress party on Tuesday promised that if it comes to power in the elections, a new and better version of the good and services tax or GST would be presented as the current version has lots of flaws in it. Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, during a press conference earlier today, said that a Congress-led government at the Centre in 2019 would launch a comprehensive redesign of the current architecture of the GST. “The current design of the GST has defects and is flawed to the extent that mere tinkering is not the solution. The Congress government at the Centre in 2019 will bring the next generation of GST,” Badal said in New Delhi today. According to a report by Business Standard website, the manifesto drafting committee of Congress has prepared a revamped format of GST with a single tax rate which would be one of the key planks for the party in 2019 general elections. Also, plans for agrarian crisis and job creation are in process by the party. Badal also claimed that the current GST laws implemented by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has several lope holes in it and is flawed to an extent that it requires enough alterations. The Congress government at the Centre in 2019 will bring the next generation of GST, he added. The Congress leader also said that party president Rahul Gandhi calls GST as Gabbar Singh Tax only because the tax law is draconian. Even similar claims had been made by the Congress president at various instances in the past. In May 2018, Gandhi had said if his party comes to power, it would impose one slab of GST instead of five and abolish the 28 per cent GST slab. "GST is basically the Congress party's idea but our thinking was that as in Singapore there is one GST of seven per cent, similarly there should be one tax but BJP government imposed five different slabs,” Gandhi had said. Recently, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hinted that the country may eventually have a single standard rate of GST through merging of 12 and 18 per cent slabs, adding that the 28 per cent slab will soon be phased out, except in case of luxury and ‘sin goods’.