“I am extremely thankful to all opposition parties and I would especially like to thank leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad”, Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha. “But, it is good that the shift to the GST regime will lead to a uniform, seamless market across the country”, said Kanungo.
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The chairman of Bharti Enterprises, one of India’s biggest conglomerates, said it would help boost the country’s economic growth by up to two percentage points.
Describing the passage of the GST Bill in Parliament as a major boost to India’s appeal to attract investments from multi-national and Chinese firms, China’s official media today said it will add momentum to the Indian economy – one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Touted as the country’s biggest tax reform, GST will replace a range of existing local and state taxes and so the industry stakeholders are highly optimistic that it will reduce the heavy tax burden which may result into benefits for the buyers and hence demand in the market will grow.
“Once GST is rolled out, doing business in India will be easier”, he said. Finally, a special GST Council, including state finance ministers, will need to agree on specifics including the tax rate. That could take another year or so. Optimists hope that, over the years, these will be included. Pessimists fear the list of exemptions will only grow.
Though tax on goods would come down because of GST, it might increase on services and also food grains.
Shares of Hero MotoCorp rose by 2.09 per cent, while Tata Motors jumped 3.99 per cent and Maruti Suzuki saw its shares soar almost 2 per cent in morning trade on BSE. “A lower GST rate will lower the manufacturing costs of the products and thus, the consumers will also be benefitted significantly”, added Mr. Nitin Aggarwal, CEO, Prayag.
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Asked about the Congress’ stand in the Lok Sabha, senior party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia told BusinessLine: “The GST concept was introduced by the Congress, but the NDA government frittered away the advantages of GST… It’s a very significant potential contribution to the economy in the longer term”, he said. About 150 countries worldwide have some form of GST or VAT (Value Added Tax), according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
