Congress leaders staged a massive protest against the BJP government today at Shaheedi Chowk for the hike in GST rates of various essential commodities which came into effect on Monday after the meeting of the GST Council, which was chaired by union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Protest was led by Former Minister & Working President PCC Raman Bhalla and Former Minister Yogesh Sawhney, General Secretary PCC InCharge District President Jammu (U). Slamming the BJP for increasing the GST rates, the Congress leaders raised slogans against the Center and demanded the rollback of the hike.
Along with Shri Raman Bhalla, Yogesh Sawhney, senior Congress leaders Kanta Bhan, Ved Mahajan, Dr. Ramakant Khajuria and others were also present during the protest.
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Speaking at the protest, working President PCC Raman Bhalla criticized 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. The government has now imposed 5% GST on daily use kitchen items such as curd, lassi, buttermilk, paneer, rice, wheat, oats, etc.
Calling GST the Gabbar Singh Tax, Bhalla
further stated that the BJP government has been consistently making efforts to increase taxes, and increase government revenue at the cost of the pockets of the middle class and poor families. It is a shameful and unnecessary decision that the BJP must roll back immediately. At a time, when the country is battling so many economic difficulties, the Centre goes ahead and adds another problem to the list. From the hike that is being done, it is very clear which section of people the BJP cares about and how ignorant and indifferent it is to the real needs of the common people.
Bhalla further highlighted that the brunt of this hike will be borne by the middle-class families, the poor, and the working class, who already struggle to make ends meet because of the existing inflation in our country. Who does the government care about more, its business class capitalist friends or the common man, asked Bhalla.
The GST-induced inflation and the Modi government-induced inflation is crippling the savings and the budgets of people, when will the Modi government stop. These are the “Ache Din” the Modi government had promised they will bring. Only recently under the BJP government, retail inflation had hit an 8-year high of 7.8% in April, and wholesale inflation had surged to a 9-year high of 15.08% on the back of elevated food and energy prices in the same month. Everything from fuel to food is costlier now, where is the common man to go, said Bhalla.
