Salman Khurshid told reporters the GST was rolled out in a hurry (File)
Congress leader Salman Khurshid today said the government has rolled out the Goods and Services Tax or GST in a "hurry" and has been changing the rules "everyday". "You can't run a government by changing every day. You must think seriously. My own view about this government is that economics of this government is absolutely zero," Mr Khurshid told reporters in Shillong.
"We have come crashing down and this is not something which you will fix overnight. This will take a lot of time to fix and when the economy falters it is a painful exercise to fix it," he said.
He said such an important economic exercise as the national sales tax was taken in a hurry. "Please tell me why GST that came two months ago and yesterday changes have been made... if there are mistakes correct it. But why should the mistake be in the first place?" the Congress leader said. "Because you are in a hurry that I have to do it today so I am announcing it today. The software was not ready, the hardware was not ready," he said.
He said economists were critical of the GST. "They changed it (GST) because elections are coming. They realised that the trading communities are very unhappy, they realised many other people were unhappy and so they have changed it yesterday once again," Mr Khurshid said.
The Congress leader said his party has not done well in many elections since 2014, adding Congress is taking initiatives to counter the BJP. "I will admit that since 2014 we have not been able to show any spectacular success. In UP for instance, BJP has a runaway victory which is unfortunate and very sad," he said, adding Punjab however saw good success.