GST will help in lowering inflation, propelling GDP: Jaitley

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said rollout of the GST will ease inflation, make tax avoidance difficult and boost GDP growth. Addressing the midnight launch event of the GST in the Central Hall of Parliament, Jaitley said the implementation of the landmark unified tax should be seen as the beginning of a new journey that will expand the country’s economic horizon.

He further said that 17 transaction taxes in states and centre and 23 cesses would be subsumed in GST. An assessee will have to file only one return. “Inflation will come down, tax avoidance will be difficult, India’s GDP will be benefited and extra resources will be used for welfare of poor and weaker section,” Jaitley said.

India is making history with the launch of GST, which is the biggest and most ambitious tax and economic reform in its history, the finance minister said. “The old India was economically fragmented. New India will create one tax, one market, one nation. It will be in India where Centre and states work together towards the common goal of shared prosperity,” Jaitley said.