New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): Lok Sabha on Monday took up discussion on the Finance Bill, 2025 with opposition members accusing the government of “patchwork solutions” and “flawed GST” and BJP members lauding the economic performance of the government saying that country’s GDP has more than doubled in the last 10 years.
Initiating the discussion, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the government’s economic management faces deep-rooted structural challenges.
He took potshots at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. “Looking at this year’s Finance Bill… I think she has slightly changed her tune. She is now telling taxpayers, ‘I couldn’t repair the roof, so I bought you an umbrella.’ This Finance Bill is a classic case of patchwork solutions at a time when the nation needs clarity, conviction, and decisive leadership. The government’s economic management find itself in grasp of deep rooted structural challenges. We have seen growth targets being scaled down, double-digit growth is apparently unattainable and the ambitions of maintaining a respectable growth rate is fading away,” he said.
“The portion of our population engaged in agriculture is higher than ever while manufacturing has shrunk around 15 per cent of the GDP. Even those who are earning five or six times per-capita income are now struggling to maintain their standard of living. So ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047 is a laudable objective for a quarter century from now but how does this Finance Bill begin to get us there,” Tharoor asked.
He said it has taken government years to finally realize that just two per cent of Indians, the hardworking taxpayers, have been carrying this country on their back.
“Individual taxpayers, mainly the salaried middle-class are already contributing more than the corporations last year and yet no action was taken. In the current financial year, the corporate taxes have crawled up by eight per cent while individual and non-corporate taxes have soared by 21 per cent. Now, the government finally wakes up and gives some tax breaks to salaried middle class. Who else is financing the government? The Aam Aadmi, through indirect taxes, most notoriously GST. Beyond exorbitant rates, our system carries the dubious distinction of being the most complex tax system in the world. While 77 countries have GST, they impose only one or two tax slabs,” he said.
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said Union Budget benefits the common man.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister, the country’s economy has more than doubled in the last 10 years, and the Congress has no connection with the nation’s economy. The budget that benefits the common man and labourers has only come under the Modi government,” Dubey said.
“The tax-to-GDP ratio is at its highest ever. The Congress, which gave a clean chit to the corrupt involved in the Bofors scandal, is now demanding a tax account. The Congress, which imposed taxes as high as 94 per cent on the people of this country, has never done anything for the common man,” he alleged.
“The Modi government has reduced taxes on imported generic medicines and lowered import duties on machines used in fish farming and handloom industries,” he added.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra accused the government of mismanagement.
“Albert Einstein famously said that the hardest thing in the world is to understand the Income Tax. Similarly, we find it very hard to understand why this government’s taxation policy continues to widen the stark divide between the two Indias. A Kuber’s India for the elite and privileged and another Vishwakarma’s India for the masses who are bearing the blunt of this government’s economic mismanagement,” Moitra said.
She also mentioned that according to the Finance Ministry, there are eight crore people who file taxes, out of which, only 56 lakh earn more than 15 lakh per annum.
“In December 2024, in reply to a parliamentary question, the Finance Ministry said that there are 8 crore people in this country who file taxes. But out of that, only 56 lakh people earned more than 15 lakh per annum. These 56 lakh individuals are the engines of India’s entrepreneurial and services economy. They are the only ones effectively paying direct income tax. Now with the new structure, those earing upto 12 and a half lakhs per annum will pay zero tax. Let’s be clear that income tax is liveable only on 56 lakh people out of 140 crore population. Yet, we have a massive income tax department with supernormal, snooping police like powers and unchecked discretion operating under the pretend of enforcement,” the TMC MP said.
“The 56 lakh people at least have a graded tax system but for the rest of India, i.e., Vishwakarma India, there is no relief. For the 139 crore people in Vishwakarma’s India, GST is the great equaliser but in the most regressive way possible. In Financial year 2023-24, the government of India collected 20 lakh crores in GST which comes to about Rs 15,000 per person. So a billionaire and a daily wage earner, both pay GST on food, transport and essential commodities. The government has done nothing to alleviate this burden. There is no discussion on reducing indirect taxes on essential commodities and no roadmap to ensure fair wealth distribution,” she added.
The debate will continue tomorrow. (ANI)
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