Old, Clipped Video Shared to Falsely Claim PM Modi Said ‘GST Can Never Succeed'

In the original video, PM Modi says that GST can't be successful without an IT network to support it.

An old video showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat, talking about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is being shared on social media.

What does he say?: Speaking in Hindi, he says, "As far as GST is concerned, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Gujarat's attitude has been very clear since the beginning. GST can never succeed."

Who shared it?: Among other social media users, this clip was shared by Congress Kerala's official X (formerly Twitter) account, saying that it showed, "the erstwhile CM of Gujarat, categorically declaring that he will never allow GST to be implemented in India."

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the video has been clipped to mislead viewers.

• In a longer version of the video, PM Modi is heard saying, "Unless you set up an IT network, GST cannot succeed."

How did we find out?: Using the terms 'gst will never succeed pm modi' we ran a keyword search for more details about the video.

• This led us to an Economic Times report from 2017, which carried the same statement, indicating that the video is older than that.

• We then looked for videos using the same keywords, filtering for results before 2017.

• The search took us to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's verified YouTube channel, which was shared on 22 March 2011, during the late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's governance.

• In the video titled, 'Shri Narendra Modi replies PM Manmohan Singh on his remarks for Goods and Services Tax (GST)', he spoke about Singh's press conference the previous day and discussions about GST and economic reform.

• Around 35 seconds into the video, Modi says,

"As far as economic improvement, economic reforms and GST are concerned, the BJP's and Gujarat's attitude has been very clear from the beginning. One year ago to this day, I had a meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Gujarat. At that time, I had told him that "Until you set up an IT network, GST will not be successful."

PM Modi

Conclusion: An old, clipped video is being shared with the false claim that PM Modi said, "GST will never be successful".

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)