Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeted Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s remarks regarding GST. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya replied to Rahul Gandhi.
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya posted on social media platform ‘X’ saying that for years, Rahul Gandhi called GST ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’, and held it responsible for hurting consumers. Now, speaking from Berlin, he has described the same GST system as ‘pro-consumer’ and ‘anti-producer’.
He said that both these things cannot be true together. No tax system can be accused of simultaneously crushing consumers and benefiting them at the expense of producers. This change in language has been done purely for political gains. He said that this reversal itself shows lack of economic knowledge. His basic understanding of economics is very wrong.
Amit Malviya said that when indirect tax rates are reduced, both consumers and producers benefit simultaneously. Consumers benefit from lower prices and greater purchasing power, while producers benefit from increased demand, higher volumes and better capacity utilization. This confusion seems to be deeply ingrained in the thinking of Congress.
When GST rates were being reduced to reduce the burden on households and boost consumption, Congress-ruled states like Karnataka and Jharkhand had opposed the move.
Malviya said that Rahul Gandhi further claims that BJP has discouraged manufacturing. However, production and investment data tell a completely different story. Today, manufacturing is being supported through clean, outcome-linked policy instruments, particularly the PLI scheme.
With an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore covering 14 strategic sectors, the scheme has already attracted investments of Rs 1.76 lakh crore, production and sales of over Rs 16.5 lakh crore, generation of over 12 lakh jobs and disbursement of over Rs 21,500 crore as incentives.
These measures are direct incentives linked to output, scale and global competitiveness. It is wrong to describe this framework as an enemy to the producers as per the facts.
His claim that big Indian companies only ‘trade Chinese products’ instead of producing in India is equally hollow. For example, in electronics and mobile manufacturing, production has increased from Rs 1.9 lakh crore in 2014-15 to Rs 11.3 lakh crore in 2024-25, while exports have increased eight-fold to Rs 3.27 lakh crore.
Mobile manufacturing units have grown from just two to nearly 300, mobile phone production has increased 28 times, and mobile exports have increased 127 times. These results reflect factory-level production, supply-chain integration and job creation within India, not trading activity.
Indigenous defense production to reach Rs 1.5 lakh crore in financial year 2024-25, which is 224 percent more than the level of 2014-15, while defense exports have increased 34 times to Rs 23,622 crore. This is capital-intensive, high-technology manufacturing and is in direct contrast to the claim that India has failed to build productive capacity.
Trends in foreign direct investment highlight the lack of credibility in their story. The manufacturing sector alone has attracted FDI worth $184 billion since 2014, while the total FDI inflow in the last 11 years has been $748.8 billion. About 70 percent of the total FDI received by India in the last 25 years has come during this period.
Rahul Gandhi’s statement is based on changing slogans rather than economic logic. When GST does not fit into the ‘anti-people’ category, it is presented as ‘anti-producer’. When manufacturing results contradict political claims, the data is ignored.
The evidence from production, exports, employment and investment clearly points to the expansion of domestic manufacturing driven by deliberate policy choices. His comments show a serious lack of understanding of industrial economics.
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