Plugging Goods And Services Tax Loopholes, Says Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the Central government is plugging the loopholes in the Good and Services Tax (GST) with the use of technology and is working towards eight per cent growth rate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attacked the Congress for the delay in implementation of the Goods and Services Tax or GST, saying that it was only after he took office that the outstanding issues were resolved, paving the way for the rollout of the unified tax regime.

The monumental blunder of demonetisation, a flawed GST and putting the squeeze on banks were the three major errors committed by the government that sent the economy into a tailspin, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said today.

GST reduction and incentive based scrappage policy are the need of the hour, but all indirect benefits should curb liquidity crisis and uplift general customers' sentiment.

In the 2020 Budget session Government has announced handholding support to the auto component industry for technological upgradation, R&D support and strategy planning.

Early in her presentation of the country's budget, finance minister Nirmala Sithraman referred to her predecessor, Arun Jaitley, and said his work on introducing the Goods and Services Tax was a huge contribution. Mr Jaitley died in August 25, 2019.

The Union Budget 2020-21 comes at a time when the economy is staring at a more than 11-year low annual expansion rate and thousands of job cuts amid weakness across sectors.

The Indian economy experienced some abrupt slowdown in 2019 due to turbulence in non-banking financial institutions and major reform measures such as GST and demonetisation, but it is not in a recession, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections have crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the third month in a row in January with improved compliance and plugging of evasion, sources said on Friday.

The Congress on Wednesday asked the government to announce a national farm loan waiver in the upcoming Union Budget and spell out measures to ensure that farmers' income doubles by 2022.

It's not the first time SIAM has raised these demands, in fact it's been over a year the body has been asking to reduce GST rates in order to push sales during the prolonged slowdown.

In one of the biggest crackdowns on Goods And Services Tax (GST) evaders so far, the centre has launched an investigation against unidentified exporters who allegedly faked GST refunds worth Rs 350 crore.

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy on Wednesday asserted that it is the "moral responsibility" of India to give shelter and citizenship to Hindus and other minority communities of Pakistan, which has been persecuting them persistently.

The Indian economy would rebound in the future and the current slowdown was cyclical, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said at the 102nd annual conference of the Indian Economic Association today.