Calling it a “great gift” for all middle-class families in the country, Union Railways Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw on Saturday said the latest GST reforms were in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “perform, reform, transform” and not any “external factor”.
During his press conference, Vaishnaw revealed how the entire exercise related to the simplification of the GST regime had been going on for over a year.
“Work on the GST reform began a year-and-a-half ago – before the US Presidential elections. The PM is very clear on reform, perform, transform…this 1.5 year-long exercise has now been completed, our PM has consistently followed up on it, has continuously set guidelines for it,” Vaishnaw said while responding to a query on whether the US’s tariff blitz was behind the Centre’s GST rejig.
“This has been done with a spirit of ensuring a good transformative change in the life of every one of our middle-class families, there is no role that any external factor has in it,” he added.
Highlighting the “heavy web of taxes” on every item before the year 2014, the Union Minister said the GST rates have been reduced to bring “rationality and simplicity” aimed at providing relief to every household and family.
In an attempt to break down the Centre’s GST move, Vaishnaw said consumption in GDP is approximately ₹202 lakh crore, and if GST reforms lead to just a 10% increase in consumption, then production and employment will rise by an additional ₹20 lakh crore. “Our country’s GDP is approximately ₹330 lakh crore, of which about ₹202 lakh crore is consumption. If, after the GST exemption, consumption increases by just 10%, there will be an additional ₹20 lakh crore of consumption in the country. This additional consumption is extremely significant in itself, because it increases production and naturally also generates employment opportunities,” he added.
Continuing in the same vein, Vaishnaw made a “happy” prediction and explained how happiness “will increase in families” and the country’s economy will receive “new energy.”
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“After the introduction of GST, many benefits followed. The tax system became simpler, and after a continuous six-seven years of experience and stability, now the honorable Prime Minister and Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman have presented a major reform by bringing cuts, rationality, and simplicity in GST rates,” he said.
