Rahul Gandhi promises GST exemption for farmers

Mumbai: In a major announcement, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday promised that farmers will be excluded from the ambit of GST and the PM Fasal Bima Yojana will be restructured if his party and the I.N.D.I.A. bloc are voted to power in the Lok Sabha polls.

Gandhi, whose Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is in Maharashtra, was speaking at a farmers’ rally in Chandwad taluka of Nashik district. “The country is strong and united because of farmers. Otherwise, it would have fallen apart. The INDIA alliance government will be the voice of farmers and work to protect their interests. Our government’s doors would always be open for farmers,” he said.

In his speech, Gandhi assured farmers of legalisation of the minimum support price (MSP) with the implementation of the M.S. Swaminathan committee report; restructuring of the crop insurance scheme; withdrawal of GST (Goods and Sales Tax) currently recovered from farmers; loan waiver and protection of price of agricultural produce during export and import.

“If a farmer is being hurt, then medicine will also have to be applied. Therefore, loan waiver, right price of crops, guarantee of MSP and proper implementation of crop insurance scheme and GST would be the right medicine,” he added.

He claimed that while the Narendra Modi government waived `16 lakh crore debt of industrialists, the Congress-led UPA government had waived `70,000 crore debt of farmers. “If the loans of rich people can be written off, farmers also should get the benefit,” he said.

Gandhi also wrote on X, “My salute to all the food providers of the country! Congress has brought five such guarantees for you which will eliminate all your problems from the roots…Congress aims to make the lives of the farmers, who irrigate the soil of the country with their sweat, happy and these five historic decisions are steps taken in that direction.”

NCP (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who also attended the rally, said that the Centre has been consistently doing injustice to farmers since it came to power. “The Modi government is unconcerned with the plight of farmers. The farmers are agitating, protesting and committing suicide but the Modi government in Delhi does not seem to have anything to do with farmers who feed the entire nation,” he said.

“It is our collective responsibility to defeat the anti-farmer, anti-youth government which invites inflation,” the former Union agriculture minister said.