Kumaraswamy says Cong govt collecting ‘YST’

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Sunday suggested that the State government had started collecting a new tax namely ‘YST’ without really expanding the acronym. He said that the new tax was similar to the Goods and Services Tax (GST). A few days ago, he had wondered aloud which “Athindra” (super power) was responsible for the transfers of officials, which have been coming in thick and fast since Congress came to power.

Kumaraswamy has on multiple occasions alleged that the State government had been charging money from officials to comply with their transfer requests. The YST dig appears to have been hurled at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra, who had been the Congress MLA from Varuna from 2018 to 2023. He vacated the seat so that Siddarmaiah can contest and win from the “safe seat”, which is quite close to Mysuru city. Therefore, Yathindra is no longer an MLA.

“There was a GST in the state and the country. However, under this State government, a new YST has been started. This should be discussed. The country embraced GST but a new YST has become a reality in the state,” Kumaraswamy told mediapersons. “People on the outside are whispering that a new YST tax has been imposed,” he added.

Kumaraswamy found support in BJP leader Ravikumar who claimed that there had been another tax namely VST, which he expanded to mean Venugopal, Siddaramaiah Tax. He was referring to the AICC general secretary KC Venugopal.