GUWAHATI: Former Assam chief minister and Congress leader Tarun Gogoi was arrested by police here on Thursday along with other senior leaders of the party while they were registering protest against high GST rates in front of the hotel where the two-day GST council meeting began this morning.
The Congress protestors led by Tarun Gogoi tried to staged protests in front of the venue of the GST Council conclave demanding reduction of maximum GST rate from 28 % to 18 % and waiving of GST on all essential items used in day-to-day life.
However, police forcibly evicted the Congress protestors from the venue and took them to Basistha Police Station in a bus. Besides Tarun Gogoi, the president of the APCC, Ripun Bora, leader of Congress legislature party Debabrata Saikia were among those picked up by the police.
While being taken to the police station, Gogoi stated that the BJP-led government was out to gag democratic and peaceful agitations. He flayed the intolerant attitude of the ruling BJP and said Congress would continue to demand for reduction of maximum rate of the GST from 28 per cent to 8 per cent or less in the greater interest of common people.
The two-day GST Council meeting state here this morning with officers’ level deliberations. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will attend the meeting on Friday.
