India Inc congratulates Modi government on GST roll-out

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Indian industry stakeholders on Friday congratulated the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government on roll-out of the historic Goods and Services Tax (GST) from midnight of June 30, and said industry is fully prepared for it.

"GST is a paradigm for the world in cooperation, consensus and convergence for an economic reform. The Indian GST is unprecedented in model, scale, and technology adaptation and will impart huge momentum to the economy," said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

"The Prime Minister has led from the front in bringing GST to fruition through his vision of 'Reform to Transform'. The medium-term impact of GST on macroeconomic indicators is expected to be extremely positive. Inflation will be reduced as cascading of taxes will be eliminated," he said.

Banerjee said tax revenues of the government would go up with expanded tax net, and fiscal deficit would remain under control. "Further, exports would emerge as more competitive in global markets, while foreign direct investment is likely to be encouraged."

"GST is a big bang reform. It is the single biggest economic transformation in India since liberalisation in 1991. It promises to forever change the way business will be done in India, leading to a unified Indian market place and a wider tax base," said Harsh Pati Singhania, Director JK Organisation.

"The government has been careful to see that the majority of the manufactured goods are taxed at a lower or existing rate, thus alleviating inflationary pressures," he added.

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, said: "The Goods & Services Tax is a transformational structural reform which will have multiple benefits -- the creation of a national market; enhanced ease of doing business; greater productivity & efficiency; and improved tax compliance."

She said all stakeholders are working together for a seamless transition to this new paradigm. This reform will result in benefits for all participants in the Indian economy, including both businesses and consumers.

"GST is a part of a large numbers of steps being undertaken by the government of India to transform and improve India's soft infrastructure. GST implementation will catapult India's tax Infrastructure into world's leading in one single step. It is expected to improve ease of doing business and is excepted to be much easier for tax payers as compared to current multiple tax systems encompassing state, centre and city based taxes," said Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, BSE.

Rajan S. Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators' Association of India said the introduction of a single tax across the country will make transactions across the country much easier and significantly reduce complexities in taxation.

"The Indian Telecom Industry remains committed towards working with the government shoulder to shoulder and has been preparing for the transition in all earnest over the course of the last year. Telecom is all pervasive and as essential service which is today the backbone of the nodal government mission mode programmes like Digital India, Make in India and Skill India," he added.