Congress tweets old clips of Modi saying,'GST can never be successful'

Congress launches campaign on social media as govt prepares to launch GST at midnight

Company News : The Congress has decided to keep away from today’s special midnight meeting convened by the government for GST (Goods and Services Tax) launch. The Congress said it would stay away not just because this was an imperfect GST, but also given the atmosphere in the country when joblessness is increasing, farmers are being killed in police firing and Muslims being lynched.

Congress has also tweeted few clips of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter in which Modi is seen saying "GST can never be successful" and implementing it is "impossible" without the requisite infrastructure.

Rahul Gandhi has also posted few tweets opposing govt's GST move.

"This is what Modi ji & the BJP really think of GST" is what the Congress captioned one clip.

"Modi ji how quickly you forget your own words. Why are you rolling out GST without developing the proper infrastructure," is the caption to another clip, in which Modi calls the implementation of GST "impossible" without proper IT infrastructure.

Party’s decision came after Congress president Sonia Gandhi met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with other leaders on Thursday. The party has been in a dilemma over attending the midnight event in Parliament and has had discussions with other parties, which are likely to follow suit. After obtaining views of her key aides, Sonia had taken the political decision to boycott the special session.

Sources said that initially, Congress leaders weighed the party's options, as a group within felt that the GST was the party’s brainchild that has now been taken over by the BJP, and thus favoured attending the meeting. However, some leaders opposing it felt that the GST is being implemented in a haste and all aspects were not taken into consideration lea

Buying a car, gold or property? How GST will impact your expenses from 1 July

Govt has surely kept the consumer's interest in mind while deciding the tax rates under GST

Company News :The introduction of GST from 1 July 2017 would not only have an impact on businesses in India but also on the common man’s monthly budget. The prices of goods and services forming part of the monthly budget would either increase or decrease depending on the GST treatment.

Eating out

For example, when an individual eats out in a restaurant, today there is service tax and VAT charged in the invoice, apart from having a service charge collected additionally. The service tax and VAT is not applicable for all types of restaurants and therefore varies from restaurant to restaurant. Under GST, the rate of tax on the restaurant invoice could be either 5%, 12% or 18%, depending on whether the restaurant is under composition scheme, non-air conditioned or air-conditioned, respectively. The replacement of service tax and VAT with GST at the above rates would make it simple for the customer to understand how much is actually going to the government in terms of taxes.

Buying gold

When it comes to buying gold, we Indians cannot stay away from this temptation. The taxes on gold currently is around 2% in most states, comprising of 1% of excise duty and 1% of VAT in most States.

Kerala has a higher VAT of 5%. The GST rate is increased from the existing rate of around 2% to 3%. While most consumers would have to shell out additional tax of 1%, consumers in Kerala would benefit from the rate reduction.

Buying property

For under-construction property, there is a significant impact post GST. The existing tax rates are broadly around 6% in most States comprising of service tax and VAT (other than a few where the VAT rate is higher). Under GST the rate shall increase to 12%, with the ability of the builder to avail all input tax credits, resulting in reducing his cost which may be passed on to buyers by commensurate reduction in prices. However, this may not be possible for the builder immediately, especially where the builder has already procured the construction material. Hence, for properties currently under construction, the transition into GST would have consumers being charged with the additional tax without actual reduction in construction value.