Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at the Modi government on Friday after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced corporate tax cuts for domestic firms and new domestic manufacturing companies. He said that the tax cuts have been announced at this time to give the stock market a bump so that it could coincide with the Howdy Modi event in Houston, Texas this Sunday.
In a sarcastic tweet, Rahul Gandhi said that at Rs 1.4 lakh crore, the Houston event is turning out to be the world's most expensive event ever. The government had earlier stated in a press note that the corporate tax cut would cost India Rs 1.45 lakh crore.
Gandhi further said that no event can hide the economic mess that India has landed in.
After the announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke about the tax cuts and called it a historic move. "The step to cut corporate tax is historic. It will give a great stimulus to Make In India, attract private investment from across the globe, improve competitiveness of our private sector, create more jobs and result in a win-win for 130 crore Indians," he said.
"The announcements in the last few weeks clearly demonstrate that our government is leaving no stone unturned to make India a better place to do business, improve opportunities for all sections of society and increase prosperity to make India a $5 Trillion economy," PM Modi added.
During the press conference held ahead of the GST Council meet on Friday, PM Sitharaman announced that the current corporate tax rate has been brought down to 22 per cent from the existing 30 per cent. The effective tax rate will be 25.17 per cent inclusive of all surcharges and cess for such domestic companies. For new manufacturing companies the existing tax rate is 25 per cent which has been brought down to 15 per cent. The effective tax rate after surcharges and cess will be 17 per cent.
Also read: Corporate tax cut: Modi govt gives big relief to India Inc, slashes rate to 22% from 30%
The minister had said that this cut will promote growth and investment in the country.
Gripped by the tax cut euphoria, Sensex later made an intraday climb of 2,284 points to the day's high of 38,378.02 and Nifty climbed to the intraday high level of 11,381.90. Both the indices Sensex and Nifty gained over 6% in Friday's trade.
PM Modi is scheduled to attend the Howdy Modi event on September 22. The community summit is organised by Texas India Forum (TIF) and saw over 50,000 registrations in three weeks. The event is all sold out. The website mentioned that the audience will be the largest gathering for an invited foreign leader in the country, except for the Pope.
Also read: What is Howdy Modi? Check timing, details of PM Modi-Donald Trump event in US