Mumbai: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday termed the Goods and Services Tax as a ‘monumental’ reform, emphasising that the implementation of the indirect tax had impacted economic growth for only two quarters.
The GST was implemented across the nation on July 1, 2017. The shift to a new taxation regime, immediately after the shock demonetisation of November 2016, had slowed the pace of economic growth.
Jaitley contended that the economy rebounded after a decline in the first two quarters after the GST came into force.
His comments came a day after reports cited former Reserve bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan as saying that GST and demonetisation slowed India’s economic growth at a time when other economies were expanding fast.
Jaitley said that monumental reforms such as GST had a transient impact but were required in the larger interest of the country and to formalise the economy. (IANS)
