FM Nirmala Sitharaman warns of '90% tax' model, says Cong could turn last 10 years' progress to zero

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman criticized the Congress for advocating an inheritance tax like law, stating it could nullify India's progress over the last decade. The FM was among the early voters in Bengaluru as polling began in 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka on Friday.

 "It (inheritance tax) directly hits the middle class. They work hard, sweat and toil of theirs are saved in small savings here and there, or they buy a house, a dream house, and keep some fixed deposits. All this is going to be exposed to the so-called property tax," Sitharaman said after casting her vote. 

The FM warned of the '90% tax' model. "I remember earlier in 1968 there was a compulsory deposit scheme where people's deposits were all 18%, 20%. Something was taken away. There was no justification given at that time... If such wealth creators are going to be punished purely because they have some money kept behind, India's progress in the last ten years would just go for a zero. And we'll probably be going back to that era when Congress imposed a 90% tax. You'll probably not believe that the current generation, wouldn't even remember or know anything about it. There was India where under the Congress rule we paid 90% of all that was earned by us as tax. That's the socialist model which the Congress party is comfortable with..."

Sitharaman also accused the Congress of targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they had no positive agendas to speak about. "Because they have no issue on their own in order to say this is what we will do for the people of India, they are constantly attacking the PM, they are doing personal attacks, and even worse bringiong in things they cannot implement". 

A total of 247 candidates -- 226 men and 21 women -- are in the fray for the first phase covering most of the southern and coastal districts, where more than 2.88 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 30,602 polling stations. The Congress and BJP are locking horns on the electoral battleground again in less than a year.

This election is witnessing a straight fight between the ruling Congress and the BJP-JD(S) combine unlike the Assembly elections in May last year which witnessed a triangular contest among the three parties. The state has a total of 28 Lok Sabha constituencies. The second phase of polling in the remaining 14 seats is on May seven.

In the first phase, while the Congress is contesting in all 14 seats, BJP has fielded nominees in 11 and its alliance partner JD(S), which joined the National Democratic Alliance in (NDA) in September last year, in three -- Hassan, Mandya and Kolar.