GST rollout before September 16 is a constitutional necessity: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday stated that there is a constitutional necessity to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) before September 16, if not on April 1.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 8th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit here, Jaitley said that since the constitutional amendments have already been made and accepted, it is necessary to roll out GST by September 16.

“We want it to be rolled out from April 1, if all the issues are resolved by then. If that doesn’t happen, then it is inevitable to roll it out before September 16,” he said.

However, during his address at the seminar ‘GST — A Game Changer’, Jaitley stated that after over a decade of waiting, GST will be implemented from April.

“Since the beginning I have been associated with the development of GST and finally we are expecting to implement it from April. GST will act as booster for the Indian economy,” he said.

A consensus is yet to be reached on the new tax regime as certain “critical issues” concerning States continue to block a broad agreement.

“Over the next few weeks we will try to resolve these issues,” the Finance Minister declared.

“The implementation of GST coupled with the Prime Minister’s push for a digital economy will make the Indian economy look much better, cleaner and bigger,” he said.

Demonetisation effect Terming the disruption caused by demonetisation as transient, the Finance Minister said the scrapping of high-value notes was a move to end the shadow economy.

To that end, he said, the government also renegotiated tax treaties with Mauritius, Cyprus and Singapore to end tax evasion and round-tripping of funds.

“Obviously difficult decisions initially pass through difficult phases. Historic decisions that can have long-term advantages for the country also have transient pains attached to them. But then in the medium and long term, they are going to change the roadmap on which the country is destined to move,” he said.

Jaitley said that while India aspires to evolve from being a developing country to a developed nation and an economy that is making an impact globally with the fastest growth rate, “we are substantially, in terms of taxation, a non-complaint society”. The steps taken are going to be significant “because we are going to change the pattern in which India and Indians are going to live and spend in the future. It is going to have an impact on the course of our present and future lives”.

Stating that the impact of demonetisation cannot be de-linked from this, he said excessive paper currency has its own vices and temptation, including corruption.

“...once this entire bearer currency, which has anonymity and no history, moves back into the banking system and is accompanied by the digitised economy, it is going to be a major step towards integration of the informal economy — which at times also was a shadow economy — with the more formal economy,” he said.

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