Speaking at the 8th edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defended the government’s push for a “cashless economy” by talking about the moral pitfalls of using excessive paper currency, which has “its vices, and leads to its own temptations.”
Defending the demonetisation move, Jaitley said that India needs bold decisions and time to fix the problems that the economy faces. Calling the note ban move a “difficult decision”, he said that such moves are required initially to pass through difficult phases.
The Finance Minister also added that reforms such as GST, demonetisation will boost growth greatly and their impact on the economy will be felt in the coming financial year.
Earlier in the day, the country’s Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said Goods and Services Tax will usher in a very simple and less burdensome taxation regime as it will be a single rate indirect tax, which can be paid by debit/credit cards, cheque and NEFT.
He said, GST will make it easier for traders and industry to access Input Tax Credit and also ease compliance burden as the entire country will become a single market.
(With agency inputs.)
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