GST top priority, says Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the government’s immediate focus was to roll out the goods and service tax (GST) from Arpil 1, 2017, though

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the government’s immediate focus was to roll out the goods and service tax (GST) from Arpil 1, 2017, though he admitted it to be a “stiff” target.

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“We have kept a very stiff target. The reason is that there is a great national aspiration in support of a reform that GST is, and state after state within a period of 20-25 days have kept on ratifying it because they stand to benefit the most,” the finance minister said. “It (GST) will the plug the leakages. In the long run it will probably stabilise the tax rate and move them down once effectively implemented.”

The GST Council will also have to be set up, after which a few pending issues would have to be addressed. “We have the months of September and October and parts of November to do that… So there is a lot of work to do. If you are able to successfully transact those issues, then in the winter session of Parliament, the central legislations, with some drafts in public domain, will have to be brought in.”

The challenges before the government, he said, is to put public sector banks back on track and continue to operationalise stalled infrastructure projects to further boost economic activity. However, state-owned banks would not be privatised, he added.