Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday, 21 September 2026, charged that the GST rate cuts on various commodities announced by the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government are being “neutralised by galloping inflation,” arguing that prices in many consumer goods have reverted to near pre-cut levels within a year without any meaningful boost to consumption.

What Ramesh Said

The Congress General Secretary in charge of communications, posting his remarks on X, acknowledged that the September 2025 GST rate cuts were “long overdue” but rejected the ruling establishment’s framing of them as transformative. “To boast of them as magic wands was hyperbole,” he stated. Ramesh pointed to uneven outcomes as evidence: while automobile sales benefited, apparel sales did not, he claimed.

“The effect of GST rate cuts on various commodities is being neutralised by galloping inflation. In many consumer goods, prices have returned to nearly the pre-GST cut level within a year without any meaningful consumption increase,” Ramesh wrote.

Broader Critique of the Growth Story

Ramesh extended his attack beyond GST, arguing that headline quarterly GDP numbers provide only “momentary elation” to the ruling establishment while masking structural weaknesses. He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “his brigade of cheerleaders” are ignoring several fault lines in India’s growth narrative.

“Neither is consumption buoyant across income segments nor is private investment booming. Real wages are on the decline,” he claimed, presenting a picture of a recovery that he argues is shallow and unevenly distributed.

GST Collections Context

The political salvo comes as official data shows India’s GST collections rose 14.8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,99,853 crore in August 2026, driven largely by a surge in import-related tax revenues. That compares with Rs 1,74,116 crore collected in August 2025, though it falls short of July 2026’s record collection of Rs 2.11 lakh crore.

The headline growth was led by gross GST revenue from imports, which surged 29 per cent to Rs 62,604 crore. Domestic GST collections also held firm, rising 9.3 per cent to Rs 1,37,249 crore from Rs 1,25,570 crore in August 2025, which government data attributes to rising domestic demand — a reading Ramesh’s critique directly challenges.

Why This Matters

The exchange highlights a widening interpretive gap between the government and the opposition over the same macro data. Strong GST receipts, the government argues, signal demand recovery; critics counter that elevated collections partly reflect inflation-driven price levels rather than volume-driven consumption growth. This is not the first time the Congress has contested the government’s growth narrative — but the specific challenge to the GST rate-cut dividend sharpens the political debate ahead of upcoming state assembly cycles.

With inflation pressures persisting and private investment yet to show broad-based momentum, the dispute over whether the September 2025 rate cuts have delivered lasting relief is likely to remain a central point of contention in economic policy discourse.