Trump threatening existence of GST; will his 'good friend in New Delhi' stand up: Cong
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Wednesday claimed that the talk of reciprocal tariffs by US President Donald Trump is calling into question a consumption tax like GST, and wondered whether his "good friend in New Delhi" would stand up to it when national sovereignty is at stake.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said his party has long been calling for a GST 2.0 that will make GST a truly Good and Simple Tax, as it was intended to be.
It has called for the barest minimum of rates and vastly reformed compliance rules, he said in a post on X.
"Now President Trump is threatening the very existence of GST. By its very structure, GST is applicable to imports but not on exports. This has never been disputed," he said.
Now all this talk of reciprocal tariffs by the US President is calling into question a consumption tax like GST, Ramesh claimed.
"WTO apart, national sovereignty is at stake here. Will President Trump's good friend in New Delhi, who keeps trumpeting that he is a Vishwaguru, stand up?" the Congress leader said in an apparent swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ramesh also shared an article on X which claimed that the latest round of proposed tariffs from US President Donald Trump includes a response to what the White House describes as "unfair" taxes, specifically, value-added taxes such as Australia's Goods and Services Tax.
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Two forest officials in ACB net for taking Rs 3.5 lakh bribe in Telangana
Hyderabad (PTI): Two forest officials were caught red-handed on Thursday for allegedly taking Rs 3.5 lakh bribe in Bhadradri Kothagudem district, the Telangana ACB said.
S Sujatha, Forest Divisional Officer, Bhadrachalam and B Krishna, Deputy Range Officer of Tegada, were caught by the ACB while they demanded and accepted an illegal gratification of Rs 3.5 lakh from a complainant at the Forest Divisional office, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said in a release.
The bribe was demanded "for not registering cases against the complainant for allegedly causing damage to forest trees, while laying 2 km BT road from Pusuguppa village, Charla mandal in Bhadradri Kothagudem district to the Chattisgarh broder which was completed in 2025, and also not to disturb the complainant in his present and future works," it said.
The accused officers had initially demanded Rs 10 lakh bribe, and subsequently, on the request of the complainant, they reduced the bribe demand to Rs 3.5 lakh, the ACB alleged, adding that the tainted currency was recovered from the accused.
The accused officers performed their duties "improperly and dishonestly" to obtain undue advantage, the ACB said. The case is under investigation.
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