ARTICLE: The GST Council's move to levy tax on daily food items is disappointing and reactionary. It was the 47th GST Council meeting held in Chandigarh on June 28 and 29 that decided to remove the tax protection for essential goods and impose five percent tax. It includes rice, wheat, atta, pulses, milk, curd, papaya, jaggery, honey, paneer, meat and fish. Organic fertilizer, compost and non-branded products will now be included in this list. Hotel rooms up to Rs 1,000, hospital rooms above Rs 5,000 and bank checks have been taxed up to 18 per cent at once. The meeting has also decided to bring the five percent tax limit for houses on rent for commercial purposes, arts and cultural trainings conducted by institutions, speed post, express parcel service and life insurance.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has sent a letter to chief ministers and finance ministers of all the states, demanding that the 5% GST imposed on unbranded food grains and other items from July 18 should be withdrawn.
The decisions of the GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, were finalized with the tacit consent of all the members except seven states. Instead of comforting rural India, which is suffering from heavy monsoon and flood damage, the government has given a slap in the face. Estimates suggest that more than 30 crore jobs have been lost in India post-Covid. India's unemployment rate is 7.8 percent in urban areas and 8.03 percent in rural areas, according to Oxfam, a leading NGO. India is among the top 20 countries in the world with less employment. Even Pakistan fares better than India with an unemployment rate of five percent.
Electoral success in India is not proportional to good governance and public welfare policies. These strange ways of democracy give the government the confidence to do anything. Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal etc., a handful of elections where the BJP and the Congress will face each other directly are on the horizon. The BJP's confidence that there are plenty of religious, caste and communal polarizations to win over there gives them the courage to impose price hikes even at the wrong time. Hijab, halal, anti-prophetism, bulldozer and old genocide controversy have become election weapons.
There is no doubt that rising food prices will increase hunger in India. India ranks 116 out of 100 in the Global Hunger Index compiled by Ireland-based Concern Worldwide and Germany-based Welt Hunger Life. India ranks 131 out of 189 on Human Resource Development Index. India ranks 128 out of 128 on the Social Progress Index. Only African countries like Congo, Nigeria, Somalia and Chad are behind India in the hunger index. All the neighboring countries are far better than India. About three and a half percent of children in India die untreated before the age of five. 35 percent of children are stunted due to malnutrition. One sixth of the population is malnourished. There are many such findings in the reports. Instead of addressing the bitter realities, the erratic administrations are darkening the future of the country.
The GST Council meetings are often seen as highly partisan, political tug-of-war, controversies and uproar over federal norms and constitutional law. The central-state disputes over revenue sharing under the Act, which came into effect on July 1, 2017, have often eroded India's union-federal concepts. The constant neglect of project allocations has led to unusual voices of protest and dissension from many states. The Chandigarh meeting led by the Finance Minister of Bengal witnessed huge emotional demonstrations against the central government's methods of taxing the Covid-19 vaccine and related materials. The meeting also ignored Chhattisgarh's complaint that the Center was flouting the Supreme Court verdict that called for states to be bound by GST laws and reforms. The new methods where only the ruling party members are considered are canceling the entire democratic concepts that India had put forward. Even recalling a time when opposition party governments were deliberately given priority in the inter-state meetings convened by the Center in the olden days is now offensive.
Many BJP-ruled states are adopting new legal models and policing, modeled on central governance practices and policies. Expected to convey strong messages of reciprocity and fair financial distribution, GST today emits a tone of cynicism and anti-people sentiment. The states that used to raise their voices together for federal interests are now a thing of the past. A political movement should be possible in the country to convey the political message that communalism is not life to the poor crores of people in India.
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