PM credits States for successful GST rollout

Describing the Goods and Service Tax (GST) as a fine example of cooperative federalism, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the new system is a “festival of honesty” which had ended ‘inspector raj’ in the country. As the new tax regime completes one year, the Prime Minister said if he has to credit anyone for the successful implementation of ‘one nation, one tax’ system, it is the States.

“GST is a great example of cooperative federalism, where all the States decided to take a unanimous decision in the interest of the nation, and then such a huge tax reform could be implemented in the country,” he said. In his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio address, the Prime Minister pointed out that so far there have been 27 meetings of the GST Council and decisions have been taken unanimously.

“These meetings involve representatives of different States; States which have different priorities, but in spite of all this, all the decisions that have been taken in the GST Council so far have been taken with absolute consensus,” he said.

Modi said GST is not only the victory of integrity but it is also a celebration of honesty. “Earlier, in the case of taxation and allied affairs in the country, there were rampant complaints of inspector raj. In the GST scheme, information technology has replaced the inspector”. He said while usually such a massive tax reform takes five to seven years for effective adoption, it took people only a year to adopt it.

Referring to Guru Nanak Dev and Kabir Das, Prime Minister said they worked towards social harmony and fought against casetism. Talking about the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Prime Minister said the lesson to be learnt from the incident is that “violence and cruelty can never solve any problem. It is peace and non-violence, renunciation and martyrdom that are triumphant in the end”.

He also referred to Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee, saying he worked for the unity and integrity of India.