AMN
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that GST has integrated the nation as an economic entity by replacing over a dozen state and central levies with just one tax .
Addressing Delhi GST Sambodhan programme in New Delhi on Thursday evening, he said, GST is eliminating corruption and it has simplified the tax system. He said, everything is going on smoothly after the launch of GST.
Mr Jaitley said, states like Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal and North-Eastern states will benefit maximum from the GST. The Minister said, the new tax regime will go a long way in benefit the economy and businesses.
He said, the first move towards the landmark GST was made by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government 17 years back, and not the Congress.
Mr Jaitley said, Vajpayee government constituted a task force which in 2003 submitted its report saying central and state levies should be merged into a Goods and Services Tax, GST. He said, the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in 2006 spoke of GST and set 2010 as deadline for rolling out the new indirect tax regime but he could not implement the plan.
In 2011, the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had introduced a Constitutional Amendment to bring GST.
The Finance Minister said, the UPA could not get all states on-board because they could not resolve how to compensate losses to manufacturing states arising because of GST being a destination-based tax.
Mr Jaitley said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was clear from day one that India has to be unified economically and devised not just a compensation formula, but also got all states and union territories on board to agree to the new tax.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Mr Jaitley said the GST was in the party’s election manifestos but at the last moment it did flip-flops as it was not sure if the new tax regime would pay off.
He asked party workers to edcuate the people and remove their doubts about the new indirect tax.