NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day promise of cheaper daily-use items through a simplified two-slab GST structure, pitched as “next-generation reforms” and a Diwali gift for the nation, has triggered a sharp political tussle, with Congress claiming the idea as its own, pointing to its 2024 manifesto and Rahul Gandhi’s 2018 posts demanding the very same changes.Eight years after the launch of the Goods and Services Tax, dubbed as the “Gabbar Singh Tax” by Rahul Gandhi, the Centre, incidentally on 50th anniversary of Sholay, circulated the blueprint for GST 2.0.It proposed two main slabs, 5% for common-use items and 18% for most other goods, in a bid to make life simpler and less taxing for citizens and businesses. The revamp plan, to be discussed by a group of state finance ministers on Thursday, seeks to eliminate the existing 12% and 28% brackets, end the compensation cess ahead of the March 2026 deadline, and impose a higher 40% levy on sin goods.

‘What Rahul Gandhi says, happens’

Congress leaders argued that the Centre was belatedly acting on a reform they had long championed. Pointing to Rahul Gandhi’s 2018 tweets and videos urging for GST reforms and limiting the rate to 18%, the party said PM Modi’s announcement only validated its long-standing critique of the current system.“For at least the past one and a half years, the Congress Party has been demanding a fundamental change in GST 2.0, and the government needs to take immediate action on this,” the party noted.Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the party had been demanding “GST 2.0” for well over a year and a half, and had even included it as a key pledge in its 2024 Lok Sabha manifesto.“Over the last seven years, the spirit of GST has been vitiated by an increased number of rates and the granting of multiple exemptions. The structure also seems to have facilitated evasion. There must be a drastic reduction in the number of rates,” he said in a statement as he went on to demand an official discussion paper on GST 2.0.“The Indian National Congress demands an official discussion paper on GST 2.0 very soon so that there can be an informed and wider debate on this vital and pressing national issue,” he said.