Tax payers will pay Rs 1 trn to 'Mr 56's friend' for Rafale deal: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi had alleged on Friday that "Mr 56's friend" would actually benefit "$20 billion", equivalent to Rs 1.30 trillion, through offset contracts in the Rafale deal.

Rafale Deal Row : Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday stepped up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that the tax payers would have to pay Rs 1 trillion over the next 50 years to "Mr 56's friend" for maintaining the 36 Rafale aircrafts that the country was buying.

Gandhi has been taking a swipe at Modi using the "56-inch-chest" remark that the latter had made at elections rallies in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress had also been questioning the prime minister about when he would show that "broad chest" while dealing with Pakistan and China.

"Over the next 50 years, Indian Tax Payers will pay Mr 56's friend's JV, 100,000 Cr to maintain 36 Rafale Scam jets, India is buying," Gandhi tweeted.

Rafale Scam Row

The Congress chief attached an investor presentation of Reliance Infrastructure, saying there was "truth" in it, which would soon be denied "as usual" by Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a press conference.

Gandhi had alleged on Friday that "Mr 56's friend" would actually benefit "$20 billion", equivalent to Rs 1.30 trillion, through offset contracts in the Rafale deal.

The Congress has been attacking the BJP government over the Rafale deal, alleging favouritism in granting the offset contract to Reliance Defence in violation of the rules. It had accused Modi and ......read more

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News Source : BS

Cong slams Modi over EPF rate cut, says govt backstabbing honest tax payers

Congress claimed that post 2014-15, this was the second such reduction on EPF interest rate.

EPF0 Rate Cut : The Congress accused the Narendra Modi government of “back stabbing” honest tax payers by lowering the interest rate on EPF.

The party also alleged that it the government was indulging in “organised fleecing” and “legalised pilferage”.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said that the prime minister had promised to bring ‘achhe din’ (good days), but in the last four years his actions have only brought ‘burre din’ (bad days) to the people of the country.

“Post the colossal loss of almost Rs 300 billion ‘loot’ and scams being unravelled in the past seven days, the Modi government has once again back stabbed the common people and honest tax payers of the country by reducing the interest rates on EPF Rate Cut from 8.65 per cent to 8.55 per cent,” he said.

The Congress leader claimed that post 2014-15, this was the second such reduction and interest rate on EPF has now been reduced twice from 8.75 per cent (in 2014-15) now to just 8.55 per cent.

Earlier in December 2017, he said the Centre had cut the interest rate on small savings schemes, including the Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Savings Certificate (NSC) and Kisan Vikas Patra, by 0.2 percentage points for the January-March quarter.

“Since Modi came to power in 2014, his government has indulged in a systematic reduction of interest rates which have extinguished the savings of crores of common people,” he said.