Should Tide Over Hurdles In 3-6 Months: Arvind Subramanian On GST Launch

Hours ahead of the midnight launch of India's greatest tax reform that replaces a bunch of central and state levies with a single indirect tax, the government's chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian on Friday rejected suggestions that the launch should have been deferred by a few months later to let the business community prepare better to make the switch. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Mr Subramanian said there was no perfect time to implement the new tax regime and there wouldn't be a world of difference in the level of preparedness even if it was implemented three months later. The government's top economist also accepted there would be teething problems for the first few months and some short-term pain was inevitable.