Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Finance, speaks to Pratul Sharma about the roadmap after the passage of the GST Bill. Meghwal has an enviable job of contributing to the economy when major tax reforms have been initiated.
How do you look at the passage of GST bill?
The passage of the bill was historic. The prestige of the Parliament has gone up because the House was unanimous in clearing the bill. Democracy has been strengthened. The Federal structure, which our founding fathers had envisaged, will get strengthened due to this legislation.
Whom will you credit for the bill?
We will give credit to all parties. Whenever, the government is power, it gets due credit. The PM put in lot of effort, so did the Finance Minister. It took a lot of efforts in bringing all the parties on board. We thank them all.
Whom will the bill benefit?
The biggest benefit of this bill is that it will usher in ‘One country, One tax’ regime. Traders will be benefited. The manufacturing and service sector will gain a lot and so do consumers.
There are concerns that GST will lead to increase in inflation.
There is no such chance. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had told the Parliament that taxes will be lowered, then how will the inflation rise. They are apprehensive on certain count. They quote example of eating food in restaurants where the service tax is low now. If tax increases in one sector, it will decrease in other.
What next in GST?
The roadmap is very clear. The bill will be tabled in the Lok Sabha (on Monday). After that it will go for Presidential assent. It will then go ratification by the states. We are confident of rolling out the new tax regime (GST) by April 1 next.