States Agree on GST, Roll-Out by 1 July: Shaktikanta Das

Many states have been at loggerheads with the central government over the implementation of GST.

A file photo of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. (Photo: IANS)

The Centre and states have agreed on almost all areas of differences on the Goods and Services Tax (GST), clearing the way for its implementation by 1 July, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday.

Das was speaking to reporters at the launch of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD’s) Economic Survey of India.

The GST aims to make the movement of goods seamless across the country by replacing a plethora of central, state, interstate and local taxes with a single, nationwide, value-added tax on goods and services.

Many states have been at loggerheads with the central government over the implementation of the indirect tax regime due to various reasons, including division of administrative control over tax assessees and compensation to states for loss of revenue.

Also Read: GST Council Clears Compensation Bill, to Next Meet on 4-5 March

Performance-Linked Bank Recapitalisation

Das said recapitalisation of banks by the government is linked to lenders' performances.

Are we simply going to inject more capital in banks and encourage inefficiency or are we going to link capital infusion with improvement in efficiency with resolution of stressed assets? ...Every amount of taxpayers’ money that goes into the bank will have to be performance-linked, and that is what the government is precisely doing.

Shaktikanta Das, Economic Affairs Secretary

The government has infused Rs 22,915 crore in 13 public sector banks out of the budgeted Rs 25,000 crore so far in the current financial year. This is a part of the government’s ‘Indradhanush’ plan to infuse funds in state-owned banks to meet capital requirements under the Basel III norms.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks stood at Rs 6.2 lakh crore in the quarter-ended December 2016, compared with Rs 3.06 lakh crore in September quarter.

BloombergQuint had also reported on February 20 that pending amount of Rs 2,085 crore from the government's recapitalisation target for financial year 2016-17 may be carried forward to the next year.

Also Read: Six Different Rates Will Make GST Too Complicated to Implement

(This story was originally published on BloombergQuint.)