Hatred For Suit, Love For Gold: Finance Minister's Jab At Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's jab about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "suit-boot" government commanded the latest in a lengthy list of comebacks today, this time from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Mr Gandhi was missing from Parliament when the minister said, "I have not been able to understand the politics of hatred for (a) 'suit' but love for gold".  Mr Gandhi has opposed the government's reintroduction of a sales tax on gold jewelry and has supported jewellers who went on a lengthy strike to protest the excise duty of 1 percent on gold and diamond jewellery.

In April last year, Mr Gandhi said that the PM, who controversially wore a suit covered with his initials for a meeting with President Barack Obama, has sacrificed the interests of India's millions of poor for crony capitalism  - "a suit-boot government," he said in a rare Parliament speech, marked by analysts and critics for an equally rare catchy slogan from the Congress Vice President.

Mr Jaitley today defended the new gold tax, which was reintroduced after a gap of four years, stating that it does not apply to small jewelers or traders.  

He also said that if the Congress is truly opposed to the tax, it can give jewellers a break at least in Kerala, one of the few states where it is in power, by removing a 5% VAT or local tax on gold.

The government imposed an excise duty in 2012, but was forced to roll it back after jewellers went on a strike.

Successive governments have struggled to curb appetite for gold in Asia's third largest economy, despite the imposition of a 10 per cent import duty in 2013 and other restrictions.

Annual imports of up to 1,000 tonnes of gold, accounting for about a quarter of India's trade deficit, have also prompted the government to launch a scheme to mobilise a pool of more than 20,000 tonnes of the metal lying idle in homes and temples.