Narendra Modi, BJP not against GST: Shahnawaz Hussain

New Delhi: Refuting Congress allegation that BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is against the implementation of Goods and Service Tax, the party today said it was not against the reform in indirect taxes.

“We want support of everyone to create environment ready for GST. This impression is wrong that BJP is against GST,” BJP spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters on the sidelines of Convergence India summit.

He was responding to the query on the allegation levelled by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh some time ago that Modi was hindering the GST implementation.

GST, which seeks to subsume various indirect taxes like excise, sales and service tax, was proposed by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and subsequently supported by Congress-ledUPA government.

Ramesh had accused Modi of “single handedly” derailing the ambitious tax reform - GST - a brain child of the BJP-led NDA government, and championed by his Bihar party colleague Sushil Modi.

“…in many ways GST owes a lot to Sushil Modi. But the other Modi did not allow GST to happen. (It did not happen because of) single handed opposition of Narendra Modi to GST.

So one Modi created GST, the other Modi made sure it did not happen,” Ramesh had said.

On Friday, Narendra Modi after his meeting with IT and Telecom industry representative did not respond to media question on his stand on GST.

“We discussed GST in our manifesto (meeting) yesterday,” Hussain said.

While speaking at the event, Hussain took a jibe on the protest staged by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal which has lead to slowdown in traffic.

“It is because of anarchy in Delhi that I have arrived one hour late here despite starting from home in time. This is first time I have been late in my life that too because of someone else. Whenever I will write my biography, I will mention that I was late at 22nd Convergence India seminar that too because of someone else,” Hussain said.

Talking about the technology industry, Hussain said the government will have to look at tax issues that are affecting the country.

“People go to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh to for textile work due to tax issue. Dubai has become a kind of tax haven. We will have to look at these issues to end this kind of disparity,” he said.

Some sections of the technology and communications industry are suffering under huge debt burden that is more than their revenues and his party, when elected to power, will try to address, he added.

PTI