Ahmedabad: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh today alleged that demonetisation and rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) have sown a "deep-rooted fear of tax terrorism" among the business community.   Addressing a Congress event for small and medium business owners as part of Gujarat assembly election campaign, he said that the growth in private investment is at a 25-year low which is "terrible for India's economy".   

The veteran Congress leader also claimed that the recent agitations by youths from different sections of society indicated the "deep dissatisfaction" with the performance of the successive BJP governments in Gujarat.   "Since July, 60,000 looms in Surat alone has been discarded. At a rate of 35 jobs lost for every 100 looms shut, an estimate of 21,000 jobs have been lost in just one industry sector in Surat.   "The impact in the rest of the country is equally bad if not worse," Singh said at the function organised ahead of the assembly polls next month.  

 He said both demonetisation and GST have "sown a deep-rooted fear of tax terrorism" among the business community.   "At a time when the economy has slowed down considerably, despite favourable global macroeconomic conditions, the fear of tax terrorism has eroded the confidence of businesses to invest," Singh said.   He said the Narmada dam project was taken forward by various Congress governments before the the main canal carried the water in the year Narendra Modi became the chief minister of Gujarat.   

Singh said that as the then finance minister, he had stepped forward to provide the funding from the Centre.   He criticised the NDA government under Prime Minister Modi for amending the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, in the BJP ruled states, even as farmers continue to suffer from "extended agrarian distress". He also accused the BJP government in Gujarat of failing to support 'Adivasis' (tribals) and being the "worst performer" in implementing the Forest Rights Act, 2008, as well as on social indicators.   

"The recent agitation of the youths cutting across different sections of the society, is an indication of the deep dissatisfaction with the performance of successive BJP governments in Gujarat," Singh said.   "The winds of change are blowing in Gujarat. The Congress party will ensure that the voice of every Gujarati regardless of caste, creed, gender or class will be heard," he said.