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Reduce fuel prices significantly, rationalise GST: Shashi Tharoor
Accusing the Narendra Modi-led dispensation of "using the tax on fuel as a means to fill the Centre's coffers," Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday demanded the government to significantly reduce taxes and cess on fuel and import duty on essential commodities. Besides, he also wanted the Centre to rationalise and simplify the GST rates on household items.
"We demand significant reduction in taxes and cess on fuel, reduce import duty on essential commodities," he said. Hitting out at the Centre for "complete disregard" for the common man, the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha MP claimed that the central government had collected about Rs 4.2 lakh crore last year by way of tax on petrol and diesel alone. "Now the BJP government has dramatically raised the prices of fuel and still the state governments are given Rs 3," he added.
Stating that the 12 to 18 per cent GST on basic household items like toothpaste, fruits and nuts made no sense, he said "GST is an indirect tax whereas the tax on income is direct and progressive because the rich pay more and the poor less."
"But the GST under Modi rule has become an aggressive tax regime because the poor and the rich pay the same percentage of tax, irrespective of their earning capacities," Tharoor remarked.
