Vision of 'self-reliant' India would be fulfilled when people buy Made in India goods: Ramdas Athwale

New Delhi [India], September 21 (ANI): Ahead of the introduction of the newly introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) reforms, Union Minister Ramdas Athwale on Sunday stated that the vision of a self-reliant India would be fulfilled when people would buy Made in India goods.
Further, Athwale applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation, stating that light had been shed on several important topics.
"He (PM Modi) has told the people of the country about 'Made in India'. Whatever goods people want to buy, they should buy Made in India goods, and not the goods that are made outside. If we resolve to make everything here, it will provide employment to crores of people, and the vision of a self-reliant India will be fulfilled... He has tried to shed light on many topics... We are going to win Bihar... Even if he hadn't decided on this, we would still have won (in the Bihar Elections)..."Athwale told ANI.
He further stated that the decision of the GST reforms was taken at the right time, and mocked the Opposition, stating that the more they spoke, the more the ruling government benefited.
"PM Modi has taken this important decision at the right time... Opposition can say anything... The more they speak, the more it benefits us..." he further added.
Meanwhile, Congress criticised the PM's address on the GST reforms and stated that the party had long argued that GST was a Growth-Suppressing Tax and that the current reforms were inadequate.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh criticised the PM, claiming ownership of the recent amendments to the GST regime.
In a post shared on X, Ramesh said, "The Prime Minister addressed the nation today to claim sole ownership of the amendments made to the GST regime by the GST Council, a constitutional body." The Congress leader also argued that the current structure is burdened with too many tax brackets, punitive rates on mass-consumption items, large-scale evasion and misclassification, high compliance costs, and an inverted duty structure that discourages output.
"The Indian National Congress has long argued that the GST has been a Growth Suppressing Tax. It is plagued with a high number of tax brackets, punitive tax rates for items of mass consumption, large-scale evasion and misclassification, costly compliance burdens, and an inverted duty structure (lower tax on output as compared to inputs). We have been demanding a GST 2.0 since July 2017 itself. This was a key pledge made in our Nyay Patra for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections," he said. (ANI)