The Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, will pledge in its manifesto to merge five different GST rates into one pegged at 18% as it prepares for polls slated to run from 11 April to 19 May as per sources. The Congress has been critical of the current GST regime adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. The party will also pledge to provide a federal youth unemployment allowance. Congress is also likely to pledge a one-time farm loan waiver.
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who leads the GST Council that adopted a five tax slab structure, has said that a single GST rate can’t work at the moment, but the nation may further simplify the tax regime and eventually move toward a single GST rate.
Modi has been criticized by the opposition for not fulfilling his promise of creating 10 million jobs each year. In the absence of timely and credible data, it’s difficult to estimate the number of jobs created during Modi’s term.
