Congress protests against hike in GST rates

Congress leaders protesting against hike in GST rates. -Excelsior/Rakesh
Congress leaders protesting against hike in GST rates. -Excelsior/Rakesh

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, July 18: The District Congress Committee Jammu (Urban) today staged a protest against the BJP Government for the hike in GST rates on various essential commodities which came into effect from today.
The protest was led by former Minister & PCC Working President Raman Bhalla and Yogesh Sawhney, General Secretary PCC and Incharge District President Jammu (U).
Slamming the BJP for increasing the GST rates, the Congress leaders raised slogans against the Center and demanded immediate rollback of the hike.
Speaking at the protest, Raman Bhalla criticised the decision to increase GST rates, saying that this will very badly impact Indian families for whom various household items will be costlier. With the hike coming into effect, the common man will have to pay extra to buy day to day items, further increasing their kitchen budget, he added.
Calling GST the Gabbar Singh Tax, Bhalla said that the brunt of this hike will be borne by the middle class families, the poor and the working class, who are already struggling to make both ends meet because of the existing inflation in the country.
Former Minister, Yogesh Sawhney also spoke at the protest and lashed out at the BJP for “another huge blunder that comes in the form of GST rates hike”. He said that the BJP Government has imposed the highest GST rates in the world whereas the Congress Government had set an 18 percent cap. “Due to the wrong policies of the BJP Government, the people are suffering. The price of various essential and daily use items has gone up drastically. The increase in inflation is hitting the people hard and the Centre has left no space for the common man to breathe,” he said and asked the Government to immediately withdraw GST on items such as pre-packed wheat flour, curd and buttermilk.
Senior Congress leaders, who joined the protest demonstration, included Kanta Bhan, Th Manmohan Singh, Ved Mahajan, Dr Ramakant Khajuria, Uttam Singh Chib, Varinder Singh Manhas, Thomas Khokhar, Dwarka Choudhary, Rashpal Bhardwaj, Ritu Choudhary, Satish Sharma, Pawan Dev Singh, Chander Sheikhar Sharma, Sanjeev Panda, Atul Sharam, Jatin Vashisht, Ashok Khajuria, Vijay Chib, Mandeep Singh, Nageshwar, Rakesh Sharma, Aman Bawa, Darshan Verma and others.