Siddaramaiah slams PM Modi over GST reforms, calls him 'deceptive'

Mysuru (Karnataka), Sep 22 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming credit for the new GST reforms, which took effect on Monday, calling his actions "deceptive".

Speaking at the inauguration of the Dasara food festival at Maharaja’s College Grounds here, the CM sought to know whether PM Modi, who collected excessive GST for eight years, will return all of that to Indians.

Accusing PM of "deceiving" Indians, he said, "It was Modi who implemented GST, it was Modi who increased GST rates, and now it is Modi who is patting himself on the back." “We were the ones who opposed when GST was increased to 18 per cent and 28 per cent. The very people who collected it all these years are now taking credit. See how cleverly they are deceiving Indians. You should not fall for this,” he added.

Meanwhile, IT Minister Priyank Kharge criticised the recent GST reforms, terming them “too little and too late”.

“It has taken eight years for Vishwaguru (Modi) to realise that they were doing things wrong. Mr (Rahul) Gandhi had been talking about it, saying it is the Gabbar Singh Tax and now they have woken up to it,” he told reporters in Bengaluru.

According to him, in these eight years, these policies have destroyed so many MSMEs and SMEs, many small shops, leading to unemployment—a reality that the Government of India needs to acknowledge.

The Minister questioned the public celebrations over the GST relaxations.

“I don’t understand why everybody is celebrating over a government doing its job. Why are they thanking Mr Modi? He’s not giving money from his pocket, it is the tax that hard-working citizens of the country have paid to the government and they are merely giving it back,” he said.

Dismissing BJP’s promotion of the reforms, Kharge said: “I don’t see whatever this GST Utsav, Dasara bonus, Diwali bumper—what is this nonsense? The last eight years, what was it then? Who pushed the common man, the poor into the well, and now giving them a ladder and BJP is expecting people to thank them for giving them the ladder now to get them out of the well. Like I said, it is too little, too late.” PTI AMP ROH