A protest march taken out by the Congress to the District Collectorate in Malappuram on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: SAKEER HUSSAIN
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) vice president V.P. Sajeendran said here on Tuesday that Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal would slap tax even on the air that people breathe if he was given one more chance to present the budget.
Inaugurating a Collectorate march taken out by the Congress demanding withdrawal of cess on petrol and diesel, Mr. Sajeendran said the taxes imposed on people were the biggest ever that the State had witnessed.
The government, he said, was fleecing people without recovering the ₹70,000 crore that ought to have been collected in the last five years.
He alleged that Mr. Balagopal’s tax department had failed miserably by losing ₹25,000 crore without updating the GST return forms in the last five years.
District Congress Committee (DCC) president V.S. Joy, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Aryadan Shoukath, former District Congress Committee president E. Mohammed Kunhi, V.A. Kareem, P.T. Ajay Mohan, K.P. Abdul Majeed, V. Baburaj, Hydros Master, and Saseendran Mankada spoke.