PM Narendra Modi's 'Good & Simple Tax' phrase not original: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress has accused the government of plagiarising the catchy “Good and Simple Tax” line. Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh has said PM Narendra Modi has once again lifted the catchline.

“Good and Simple Tax was first used by tax expert Satya Poddar. After him, I have used the phrase to describe how GST should be but isn’t in its final shape. Once again, Modi has shamelessly plagiarised somebody else’s work,” said Ramesh who called PM ‘a serial plagiariser’.

Over the last three years, Congress has accused the Modi government of lifting UPA schemes and renaming them. “The Modi government has always been very good at plagiarism,” said Ramesh, adding “they have lifted all our schemes — Aam Aadmi Beema Yojana (AABY), Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Beema Yojana (RGSSBY) and the Rashtriya Swasthya Beema Yojana (RSBY) — and simply renamed them. Even Swachh Bharat is Nirmal Bharat.”

Calling the PM an expert in ‘renaming and rebranding’, Ramesh said there were at least 20 schemes of UPA that have been ‘plagiarised’ by BJP government. The former Congress minister shared an article dated June 2, 2015 written by him and quoted from it.

“I had written two years back ‘Of course, GST stands for goods and services tax, but it really should be seen, as noted tax expert Satya Poddar said recently, as a good and simple tax. As proposed, GST is certainly not such a good and simple tax’.