Akhilesh slams Centre over reports of GST hike on several items

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday attacked the BJP government at the Centre on reports that the GST on several items might be hiked, saying the BJP plans to “increase corruption” instead of increasing revenue.

In a post on X, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said, “BJP was saying ‘one country, one tax’ but this statement of theirs also turned out to be a ‘jumlaai jhoot’ (rhetoric) because now they are bringing new slabs of tax.”

“When there is ‘one tax, many slabs’ then the slogan of ‘one tax’ has proved to be a lie in the true sense. Actually, there is a big game behind increasing the tax rates. This is the BJP’s plan to increase corruption instead of increasing revenue to do ‘vasuli’ (extort money) from shopkeepers and businessmen through the officials by exerting more pressure on them,” he charged.