Congress promises to bring GST-II

The Congress on Tuesday promised to bring “GST-II” after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls if the party is elected to power, and said the current goods and services tax format had undergone too much patchwork and must be revamped.

“You can’t wear a kurta after too much patchwork on it, and you may have to go for a new one… The current design of the GST has defects, and is flawed to the extent that mere tinkering is not the solution,” Punjab finance minister Manpreet Badal said at an AICC press conference. “The Congress government at the Centre in 2019 will bring the next generation of GST, the GST-II.”

With this, the Congress has opened a twin-front — to dismiss as ineffective the recently changed GST slabs that the Modi government is trying to use to soothe complaints over the tax rates and to hold forth before the electorate, particularly the trading community, a pre-poll promise that it would further rationalise the system. Badal said it was time the Centre gave the post of the deputy chairman of GST Council to the Congress. The timing of this demands coincides with the party winning three core states.