India will press ahead with tax refinement, repairing the banking system and getting slowed down foundation ventures moving to drive development, union finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday, however it is not yet prepared to auction its state banks. So there is a lot of work to do and 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.
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“The advantages of reforms are the advantages of growth”, Jaitley told the Economist India Summit.
Jaitley did not say what rate he preferred but the government’s economic adviser has pegged a revenue-neutral rate at about 18 percent. “I would certainly like to give it a try”, Mr Jaitley said when asked about the timeframe for implementation of the GST.
Arun Jaitley said it was crucial to restore India’s banking sector, but he ruled out the possibility of selling stakes in public sector banks, which control 70 percent of the assets in India’s financial system.
The Centre is aiming to implement the landmark indirect tax regime, Goods and Services Tax, from April next year.
Jaitley hailed the GST as a long-standing reform in indirect taxation but iterated that the government’s first priority was the health of public sector banks.
India now owns stakes of between 60 percent and 86 percent in almost two dozen state-run banks.
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He also said India’s economy needed to grow faster than the 7.1 per cent recorded in the latest quarter.
