Congress has protested against increase in GST over some essential products saying that it will lead to inflation.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary, criticized Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over her defense of the increase in Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates on food products.
He said “branded and labeled” is very different from “pre-packaged and labeled”, as the former refers only to items of big companies priced higher and bought by middle classes and upper-middle classes, while the latter affects small businesses whose items are bought by the lower middle class and the poor.
Mr. Jairam said in a series of tweets, “Above all is the timing. It is cruel to raise tax rates when CPI (consumer price index) inflation is over 7 per cent, WPI (wholesale price index) inflation is over 15 per cent, unemployment is high, the rupee is depreciating, the current account deficit is widening and inflation is expected to rise worldwide”.
The leader said, “Assume there are some input taxes in pre-packaged goods. Was there a demand from producers and sellers to impose a GST on pre-packaged and labeled goods? Not to our knowledge”.