SHILLONG: The BJP has taken exception to the reservations expressed by Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Aadhaar, demonetisation and GST.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, the party recalled that according to the Economic Survey 2011-12, the Unique Identification Authority of India’s Aadhaar project has the potential to improve the delivery of social sector schemes such as the rural employment guarantee scheme.
“UIDAI is engaged in providing residents in the country a unique identification number (called Aadhaar) linked to the resident’s demographic and biometric information. The project aims to create a platform that serves as an identification infrastructure for delivery of public and private services to the residents of India,” the statement said.
The survey suggested that the incorporation of Aadhaar into the rural employment guarantee scheme will assist in addressing some of the major challenges including payment of wages and “ghost beneficiaries”.
It observed that Aadhaar can replace the need to provide supporting documentation for the standard Know Your Customer (KYC) drills, making opening of a bank account significantly simpler.
Cong welcomed GST
The statement further said Goods and Services Tax (GST) was welcomed by all parties, including the Congress.
Claiming that there is a positive impact of GST on the economy, the statement said the GST is a game changer for every businessman. “First, when purchases are declared, on the other end the supplier also needs to approve the fact that they have invoiced the purchaser (B2B), a clear two way system. This means, the chance of manipulating purchase invoices is gone. At this stage a clear line of sale is being interconnected. “The complexity of GST where you need to declare sales and purchases eliminates an attempt of fraud,” it stated.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also favours the GST and the demonetisation. “The IMF says that the growth in the country is expected to accelerate in the medium term,” it said.
“Therefore, I request the citizen of the country to have patience with this new law that is being reviewed by the Prime Minister,” state BJP vice-president J.A. Lyngdoh said in the statement.
Merits of demonetisation
Further, the state BJP said it was every individual’s responsibility to fight against corruption. It said that post-demonetisation, the government could monitor black money coming to the system and that there has been accountability. “People can now acquire loans with less interest rate while digital transactions will give more transparency in business transactions,” it said.
“Demonetisation has boosted cashless transactions from Rs 71.27 crore in October 2016 to Rs 111.45 crore in May 2017”, the statement said.
Post demonetisation, tax authorities have apprehended undisclosed income of Rs 15,347 crore, which is 38% jump from previous year and brought to light 18 lakh suspicious bank accounts. While, substantial increase in filing of Income Tax returns is noticed which is an increase of 34%, the collection of personal income tax has shown an increase of 42%.
Fundamentally, demonetisation and GST are great conceptions, hence, not distinguishable contrary to the belief of certain critics of demonetization.
During pre-demonetisation bulk purchases take place and were paid through cash and invoicing was infrequently obligatory. Unscrupulous suppliers who were unregistered used every loop-hole in the Taxation laws and large-volume sales took place with least inconveniency in showing tax identification, non-invoicing of crores of business transaction.
“The first impact (of demonetisation) was on the unscrupulous suppliers where it was almost impossible to get paid with new currencies.
