"Congress cannot see happiness of people": Union Minister Hardeep Puri jibes at Jairam Ramesh

New Delhi [India], September 22 (ANI): Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri hit out at the Congress party on Monday, saying that the party cannot see the happiness of people after the new Goods and Services (GST) rates were implemented across the country.
"There is a feeling of fervour and festivities. Their (Congress) politicians cannot see the happiness of the people who will benefit from the reforms, they cannot absorb that. Let us not talk about them, leave their things, lets come to GST," Puri told ANI.
"During that time, we should see the situation. You used to criticise it so much, called it as Gabbar Singh Tax, whatever, leave that. The situation right now is that we implemented GST, and got second generation (reforms) too, and people are benefiting from this," he added.
The Union Minister's jibe at the party came a few hours after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming that the latter opposed GST when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
The Congress leader had said, "From 2006-2014, for eight years, only one CM opposed the GST, and that CM became the Prime Minister in 2014 and took a U-turn and emerged as a messiah of GST in 2017."
The union minister also highlighted the difficult situation the companies were in while trying to move goods across state lines.
"What are they talking about previous years? That time there was no such tax. When PM Modi addressed the nation, he said that taking goods from Bengaluru to Hyderabad by road, which is around 500 kilometres, was very difficult. Companies used to take goods to Germany, and then by air they used to get it back. That was the situation," Puri said.
Questioning the claims of the Congress, Puri called on the opposition party to check the records and see who called for a rate reduction, the Centre or other states led by Congress.
"We never said that we did everything. Someone said it was the GST Council that did everything. When did we say the GST Council did not? But the structure of the GST Council is such that the Union Finance Minister and Finance Ministers of states are also a part of it. They should check the records. We gave a proposal, or did they come to us with a reduction proposal?" he said.
Earlier, while speaking with ANI, Jairam Ramesh had also called the reforms as limited, saying that they don't provide ease in navigating the procedural complexities of the MSME sector.
He said, "The recent reforms to GST are limited. The need to provide ease in the procedural complexities of the MSME sector has not been fulfilled. The Prime Minister has not said anything on the demand of state governments to provide them with a five-year compensation package. Many issues need to be addressed." (ANI)