Cut in corporate tax will benefit only big firms: Anand Sharma

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Tuesday alleged that the Centre's decision to reduce the corporate tax rate would benefit only big firms, while asserting that the country at present is facing the "worst" unemployment problem. Addressing Congress workers at the party office here ahead of the bypolls to Dharamshala and Pachhad assembly seats, Sharma said the BJP did not fight the last general elections on "real issues".

"The relief of corporate tax provided by the centre would benefit only big business houses," he alleged. Sharma said the BJP fought the last general elections on Indo-Pak, nationalism and Pulwama-Balakot issues, not on the "real issues".

"The BJP did not fulfill the promise of providing two crore jobs to the youth and depositing Rs 15 lakh in every citizen's bank account," the Congress leader said. The country is facing the "worst" unemployment problem since independence, he alleged.

Earlier, the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) submitted a memorandum to the state governor, alleging economic slowdown in the country. The state Congress led by its in-charge Rajni Patil submitted the memorandum to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya at Raj Bhavan.

State Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore, Sukhvinder Sukhu and AICC secretary Gurkirat Singh Kotli were part of the delegation. In the three-page memorandum, the Congress said India's GDP growth has touched 5 per cent to a six-year low in the April-June quarter this year.

This growth rate had slowed to 5.8 per cent in the previous quarter, it added. Admitting that the Congress at the national and the state level is currently passing through crisis, HPCC president Rathore asked the party workers to unitedly fight against the "anti-people" policies of the BJP governments at the Centre as well as in the state.

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