New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has attacked the Centre saying the Good and Services Tax (GST) "is being executed by an incompetent and insensitive government". 

Unlike demonetisation, Rahul said, GST is a reform that the Congress has championed and backed from the beginning. However, "like demonetisation", the GST rollout is being done "without foresight", he said.

The country's citizens, Rahul said, will be put through "tremendous pain and anxiety."

The Congress has tweeted undated clips of Prime Minister NarendraModi saying "GST can never be successful" and implementing it is "impossible" without the requisite infrastructure. 

"On the question of GST, it is the BJP's view and the Gujarat government's view, from the very beginning, that GST can never be successful," Modi is shown as saying. 

The Congress had this to say about the PM's old comments: "This is what Modijiand the BJP really think of GST."

And this: "Modiji how quickly you forget your own words. Why are you rolling out GST without developing the proper infrastructure."

The Congress and several other opposition parties - including the TMC, the RJD, the CPI and the CPM - are boycotting the midnight Parliament session called for the GST rollout. 

The Congress said it finds the present GST format "unacceptable". 

"GST in its present format will not only ruin small and mid-size businessmen, it will also create large-scale unemployment," said Congress leader Ajay Maken.

The GST Council under the chairmanship of Union finance minister ArunJaitley has suggested the "most disappointing" and "inefficient" model of GST with a four-tier structure that is bound to "complicate", instead of simplifying taxation, Maken said.
"For an uncomplicated taxation system, the tax slabs under GST should not have been more than two. Many countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, are operating under a reduced, single taxation system of GST," he added.

In February 2006, then finance minister P Chidambaram of the Congress formally introduced the concept of GST in his budget speech and set April 1, 2010 as the deadline for the rollout. However, with the dissolution of the 15th LokSabha, the bill lapsed.