GST Could Increase Revenue for Centre and States - President
The President said something funny – The FAPCCI leaders are all smiles, but Minister Geetha Reddy and Governor Narasimhan are not impressed.
PRESIDENT Pranab Mukherjee addressed a meeting of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FAPCCI) at Hyderabad on Friday. He said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) was one area for substantial increase in the Revenue of the Centre and States. Maybe the President has a regret that he was not able to push the GST through the maze of Indian politics, when he was the Finance Minister. Now, nobody is even talking about GST. It is certainly a long way ahead, maybe after 2014. As of now, the politicians have better things to spend the taxpayers' money on.
The president cautioned that if the rate of domestic savings came down from 31 per cent (of the GDP), the implications would be that the external support would have to increase from 2.9 per cent to 3.5 per cent. That means our balance of payment crisis would aggravate.
He wanted a growth in manufacturing sector, along with four per cent growth rate in agriculture and eight to nine per cent in services sector for the Indian economy to have a balanced development.
He said that economic development required broad consensus and that collective wisdom of the political establishment should decide how we proceed. Maybe he was thinking of GST and the lost opportunities. The Finance Minister in him is still very active.