Bengaluru (Karnataka): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said India's progress in the last ten years will go to zero if the so-called property tax is implemented in the country. Sitharaman also said that the inheritance tax directly impacts the middle class and aspirational class.
Speaking after casting her vote in Bengaluru, the Finance Minister said, "I remember earlier in 1968 there was a compulsory deposit scheme where people's deposits were all 18 per cent, 20 per cent. Something was taken away. There was no justification given at that time."
She further said, "If such wealth creators are going to be punished purely because they have some money kept behind, India's progress in the last ten years would just go for a zero. And we'll probably be going back to that era when Congress imposed a 90 per cent tax. You'll probably not believe that the current generation, wouldn't even remember or know anything about it."
"There was India where under the Congress rule we paid 90% of all that was earned by us as tax. That's the socialist model which the Congress party is comfortable with. This tax directly hits the middle class. It directly hits the aspirational class. They work hard, sweat and toil of theirs are saved in small savings here and there, or they buy a house, a dream house, and keep some fixed deposits. All this is going to be exposed to the so-called property tax," she added.
Sitharaman also accused the Congress party of targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they have no positive agendas to speak about.
