Finance Minister urges States to implement GST
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi during a pre-Budget meeting with State Finance Ministers in New Delhi on Friday.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday that the immediate challenge was to increase the growth rate during 2015-16, projections of which vary from 6 to 6.5 per cent.
He was making the opening remarks at a pre-budget meeting with State Finance Ministers here. Calling on States to implement jointly with the Centre the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Mr. Jaitley said the economic spin-off of implementing the reform would be hugely beneficial to both, according to an official release.
Most of the States supported the initiative of the Union government regarding the implementation of GST, the release said. States also welcomed the provisioning of Rs. 11,000 crore during this fiscal for Central Sales Tax compensation to them by Mr. Jaitley. The Centre’s assurance on full compensation of losses due to the GST rollout was also welcomed.
The Finance Minister said “India grows when States grow.” The growth in the services sector was good while that in agriculture was reasonable. He referred to the patchy growth in the manufacturing sector and said this was one of the biggest challenges for the Centre. He urged the States to work with the Centre in taking the economy back to the high-growth path. He told the States that the Fourteenth Finance Commission had submitted its report and it was under the consideration of the Central government.
The meeting was attended among others by Chief Ministers of three States (who hold the Finance portfolio) and 13 State Finance Ministers. It was also attended by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, Finance Secretary Rajeev Mehrishi, Revenue Secretary Shakti Kanta Das, Expenditure Secretary Ratan P. Watal, Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian.
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