APCC hits out at Modi on tax for 'cleanliness'

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Nov 17: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has caught the rendra Modi-led NDA Government at the Centre on the wrong foot for, what it said, taxing the common people in order to keep its Swachch Bharat Abhiyan afloat.

The Centre has recently announced 0.5 per cent service tax for the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan. This taxation, according to the APCC, is bound to make rental of  hotels, food in restaurants, bills of mobile phones and land line telephones, all modes of travel, issuance of PAN card etc., costlier.

In a statement issued to the press today, APCC secretary Ritupar Konwar said: "Train fares have already been hiked with the promise that the trains need to be kept clean. Even as the fares have been hiked, the trains are as earlier in so far as cleanliness is concerned. The deduction in case of refunding of ticket cost when one opts to cancel his/her journey has also been doubled after Modi coming at the helm of affairs at the Centre. Now the prices of essential commodities, right from pulses to rice, are beyond the control of the government. Even life-saving drugs are costlier now after Modi becoming the Prime Minister. Before the last Lok Sabha polls, Modi did make it a point to that prices would have to be kept under control, and the country was heading for 'acche din'. The BJP tells something, but does something else."

Citing a report given by trade body recently, the APCC secretary said that the stock of rice in the country has been falling fast, and a crisis of rice is staring at the people of the country. "However, the Prime Minister is evading all such burning problems, and is on a globe-trotting spree," he said.