Gaurav Gogoi urges Central Government to introduce GST 2.0 in upcoming Union Budget

Jorhat, Jan 10: Jorhat MP and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi urged the Central Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce a new policy on GST (Goods and Services Tax) in the Union Budget for the next financial year (2025-26) which will be tabled by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.

Addressing newspersons at the Jorhat District Congress Bhawan on Thursday, Gogoi said that the National Congress (INC) has been from time to time calling for a new GST 2.0 policy in order to provide relief to the economically marginalised and middle-class people from heavy tax burden.

Stating that the Congress party had in its 2024 Lok Sabha polls manifesto mentioned bringing a new GST policy if the party would come to power, Gogoi said that the party has renewed the call for a new GST policy to be announced in the upcoming Union Budget.

Elaborating upon the need for a new GST policy, the Jorhat MP stated that under the present GST policy, the poor and the middle-class sections of the society, which comprise a large chunk of the population of the country, were bearing a huge tax burden in view of GST imposed in a lot of items of daily use.

Pointing out that the economically disadvantaged and middle class were paying more tax under the present GST regime than the rich and privileged.

Quoting data from research and survey reports, he said that annually, almost 64% of the GST revenue collected by the government was from the backward sections of the society. Reading out from such a report, the MP said that in 2020-21, 64% of the total revenue collected un- der GST came from the bot- tom 50% of the population and the top 10% of the population paid only 3%.

Terming the present GST as 'Gabbar Singh tax' which was causing a huge economic burden on farmers, working class, and middle-class people, Gogoi said that there was a strong need for a new GST policy under which there would be a reduction on GST rates to provide relief to the large section of the population who were economically backward.

Mentioning that he was a member of the Finance Committee and was astonished to see data which showed that in the last fiscal year, the middle-class people of the country paid more amount of money as income tax than the total revenue of corporate tax collected from the industrial sector in the entire country.

"Is it an indication of the acche din ayenge (good days are coming) slogan of the BJP or vikash (progress) achieved under the Modi-led Government," Gogoi questioned.

By Correspondent