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’.