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Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday said that the GST rate cuts on various commodities announced by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government are being "neutralised by galloping inflation". 

The Congress’s General Secretary in charge of communications stated that the GST rate cuts in September 2025 were proclaimed to be game-changers. He admitted that the rate cuts had been long overdue, but said at the same time to boast of them as magic wands was hyperbole. In fact, their impact on boosting consumption has been mixed at best. For instance, automobile sales benefited while apparel sales did not, Ramesh claimed in a post on X.

"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 further stated that headline quarterly GDP numbers may give momentary elation to the ruling establishment, overlooking their imperfections, but there are many fault lines in the India growth story that are simply not being acknowledged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and "his brigade of cheerleaders".

“Neither is consumption buoyant across income segments nor is private investment booming. Real wages are on the decline,” he claimed.

India's GST collections rose 14.8 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,99,853 crore in August 2026, driven by a sharp increase in tax revenues from imports, according to government data.

The August collections were higher than the Rs 1,74,116 crore recorded in the same month last year, although they were lower than July 2026's collection of Rs 2.11 lakh crore.

The growth in GST receipts was largely led by import-related taxes, with gross GST revenue from imports surging 29 per cent to Rs 62,604 crore.

Domestic GST collections also remained on a firm footing, rising 9.3 per cent to Rs 1,37,249 crore from Rs 1,25,570 crore in August 2025, indicating the rise in domestic demand.