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The parliamentary debate on increasing inflation appears to be ongoing. The parliament house has witnessed a lot of debate and discussion since a new GST regulation came last month.
On August 7, 2022, the AAP’s Twitter account shared a video featuring Raghav Chadha, an AAP party member, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. They used a clip of Nirmala Sitharaman in a video and mocked her for not understanding basic Economics. The video also included that portion of The Hindu Business Line which read, “Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj on Tuesday accepted that inflation had contributed to Higher GST collection.”
In his tweet that included the headline from Business Line and Business Standard, Raghav Chadha quoted the statement of Tarun Bajaj and claimed he had himself said that inflation played a big role in GST revenue.
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Fact Check
In the video shared by the AAP Twitter account, our finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, is heard saying, “when the inflation is high, the same commodity is bought at the higher rate and therefore the GST earned out of it will be far higher. This is the case.”
In our research, we found that the AAP’s Twitter account released footage of the Rajya Sabha debate that had been edited, and that Nirmala Sitharaman had been called out for her ignorance of basic economics.
After searching for the Rajya Sabha video of Nirmala Sitharaman on YouTube, we found a Sansad TV video of the Finance Minister on the price rise issue, in which it was revealed that Nirmala Sitharaman quoted Raghav Chadha and further mentioned the principles of economics said that “when inflation increases, then the prices of goods increase and when the prices of goods increase, then people stop buying them, which reduces the GST collection.”
Further digging more into the matter, it was clear that Raghav Chadha in his speech at Rajya Sabha and tweet shared on August 5, 2022, cited Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj and had selectively quoted his statement. He said that inflation has contributed to the highest GST collection.
On August 2, 2022, parliament session, Raghav Chadha, an AAP party member raised his concern over GST and slammed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam for rising inflation.
In our research, we came across a YouTube video titled “GST- Five Year Journey of Tax Transformation and the Way Forward” from an Interactive Session with the Ministry of Finance. We learned from the video that Tarun Bajaj had said that the GDP, inflation, and good compliance were all contributing elements to the revenue. Moreover, following Covid, the economy and a few industries are starting to recover and coming back on track. Further explaining it, Vivek Johri made it clear that inflation is not the major contributor to the highest GST collection.
From 6:15:55 onwards
It is obvious from the video that Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj stated that, the factors which have influenced revenue are Inflation, real GDP, and good compliance and also because the economy is coming back on track after Covid. Raghav Chadha attempted to argue that inflation is the only factor behind the greatest GST collection in the Rajya Sabha by selectively quoting the statement of Tarun Bajaj.
It appears that Raghav Chadha and the Business Line purposefully cited only a half portion of Tarun Bajaj’s statement in order to deceive the public. Even the altered video clip shared by the AAP Twitter account is misleading.
| Claim | 1. Tarun Bajaj stated inflation contributes to highest GST collection 2. Nirmala Sitharam doesn’t know basic Economics |
| Claimed by | Raghav Chadha, Business Line and AAP Twitter handle |
| Fact Check | Misleading |
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