GST implementation a 'tamasha': Rahul Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today dubbed the implementation of GST as a "tamasha", saying the reform was being rushed through in a "half-baked" manner as a "self-promotional spectacle".

Gandhi, currently abroad on a holiday, hit out at the government, accusing it of being "insensitive" for rolling out GST without planning, foresight and institutional readiness, as it did during demonetisation.

"A reform that holds great potential is being rushed through in a half-baked way with a self-promotional spectacle #GSTTamasha," he said on Twitter.

A reform that holds great potential is being rushed through in a half-baked way with a self-promotional spectacle #GSTTamasha

— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) June 30, 2017

"But like demonetisation, GST is being executed by an incompetent and insensitive government without planning, foresight and institutional readiness," Gandhi also tweeted.

The Congress leader said India deserves a GST rollout that does not put crores of its ordinary citizens, small businesses and traders through tremendous pain and anxiety.

He claimed that unlike demonetisation, GST was a reform that the Congress had championed and backed from the very beginning.

Gandhi's tweets come a day after the Congress announced its boycott of the midnight GST launch event by the government at the Central Hall of Parliament tonight.

The Congress is boycotting the event on grounds that a taxation reform could not be equated to midnight celebrations of Indian Independence the Central Hall has seen on August 15, 1947, and later, on 50 years of freedom in 1972 followed by the celebration of the Golden jubilee of Independence in 1997.