By Aveek Banerjee,News18

Copyright news18

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, accusing it of imposing an additional tax on cement despite the Centre rolling out reduced GST rates on several products.
While launching development projects in Odisha’s Jharsuguda, the Prime Minister highlighted that previous governments remained dependent on foreign countries for technology. He said Congress did not leave a single opportunity to loot the people before 2014.
“We pulled the country out of Congress’ system of loot in 2014,” he said. “When Congress was in power, even if our salaried employees, traders, and small business owners earned just Rs 2 lakh a year, they had to pay income tax. This was the policy Congress followed until 2014. But today, individuals earning up to ₹12 lakh annually don’t have to pay even a single rupee in income tax.”

The double-engine government is committed to accelerating the pace of development in Odisha. Addressing a programme during the launch of various projects in Jharsuguda. https://t.co/XpQjHIuMXR
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 27, 2025

Congress Still Looting People: PM Modi
The Prime Minister said that while the Centre government provided tax reliefs to common people, the Congress was finding new ways of continuing its malpractice of looting the public. “The Congress has developed a habit of abusing us in all sorts of ways,” he said.
“When we reduced GST rates, prices came down across the country. Still, Congress doesn’t want to pass on that relief to the common people. Earlier, when we reduced prices on diesel and petrol, the Congress-ruled states imposed additional taxes on top of it, keeping the prices the same, and filled their own coffers.”
“The same thing happened in Himachal. When our government reduced the price of cement, the Himachal Congress government imposed a new tax of its own. So, the benefit that the Government of India wanted to give to the people of Himachal — this loot-driven Congress government stood in the way like a wall,” PM Modi further said.
He further said that people should be wary of Congress and its allies and wherever they form the government, they will loot the people.
His remarks came after India’s major tax overhaul, dubbed GST 2.0, came into effect on September 22. The new regime brings a simplified two-rate structure, lower levies on a wide range of products, and measures to ease compliance.