'Rewriting history with lies': Amit Malviya counters Kharge's claims on GST rate cuts, says Cong left behind...

BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya on Monday launched a sharp attack on Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, accusing him of “rewriting history with lies” to cover up his party’s failures on economic reforms.

In a post on X, Malviya said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was “an NDA vision, initiated in 2000 under Vajpayee ji,” but the Congress “sat on it for 10 years — no consensus with states, no IT backbone. A full decade wasted.” He added that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who “revived the reform, built consensus, passed the Constitutional Amendment in 2016, and rolled out GST in 2017.”

Taking on Kharge’s claim of “One Nation, 9 Taxes,” Malviya countered that before GST there were “17 taxes + 13 cesses = chaos,” while after the reform there are “5 clear slabs (0%, 5%, 12%, 18%, 28%),” with essentials such as atta, rice, milk, curd, books and healthcare either exempted or taxed at 5%.

Malviya also accused the Congress of leaving behind “crushing taxes,” citing examples such as 27% on soaps and toothpaste, 31% on chocolates and ACs, 29% on cement and 22% on bicycles. In contrast, he claimed, the Modi government “delivered relief,” bringing down rates — “toothpaste, soaps, hair oil: down to 18% → now 5%... diagnostic kits: down to 5%... cement: down from 29% to 18%... ACs & TVs: down from 30%+ to 18%... insurance, UHT milk: 0%.”

“Even Congress’s ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ jibe has collapsed. Collections have soared, leakages plugged, and during the pandemic the Centre released ₹2.78 lakh crore to states as compensation. Without GST, Congress-ruled states would have gone bankrupt,” Malviya wrote.

He further argued that the Modi government had rationalised corporate tax rates to 22% (15% for new manufacturing), which he said attracted record FDI and created new factories and jobs, while the UPA’s higher rates “benefitted only cronies.”

 Malviya concluded his criticism by claiming that Congress had wasted a decade, while the Modi government delivered GST within three years, reduced taxes on essentials, and created one national market. He added that Kharge was twisting facts, but the people knew Congress had failed and Modi had delivered.

His tweet came in response to Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who had attacked the Modi government over the Goods and Services Tax (GST), accusing it of burdening the poor and middle class while giving relief to corporates. In a post on X, Kharge said, “For nearly a decade, the Indian National Congress has been demanding the simplification of GST. The Modi government turned ‘One Nation, One Tax’ into ‘One Nation, 9 Taxes,’ with multiple slabs and special rates.”

He alleged that everyday essentials like milk, curd, grains, flour, pencils, books, oxygen, hospital costs and even farm goods were taxed under GST. “For the first time in the country’s history, farmers were taxed… That is why we named this BJP-imposed GST the ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’,” Kharge wrote. He also said that 64% of GST collections come from the poor and middle class, while billionaires contribute only 3%.