Final draft of GST laws ready; Council to meet on Feb 18: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that final drafts of the goods and service tax (GST) laws are ready. He further added that the GST council meet on 18 February.

"My target is to put GST drafts in Budget session of Parliament," he said.

He further added that the government is making efforts to make the society more tax compliant. He said that the lower tax rate in Budget 2017 is so that more and more people are to be incentivised to pay taxes.

“If you leave 56 lakh salaried taxpayers, then only 20 lakh people declare their income and pay taxes voluntarily. Even for a non tax compliant society, State needs resources, and of course, resources would come from the affluent,” he said.

Addressing a post-budget interactive session with industry associations at Vigyan Bhawan he said while the country has so many doctors, lawyers, consultants, business persons, many choose not pay taxes. Hence, they are looking to make the country into a more tax compliant nation as there is a need for resource for the State.

FM @arunjaitley: After demonetisation, in 18 lakh cases amount of deposits do not fit well with the profile of the account holder.

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) February 3, 2017

FM @arunjaitley: Replies have been sought from these persons. Here also, they have to file online responses without any need to visit Dept.

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) February 3, 2017

He further spoke about the decision to reduce the cash donations for political funding he said, “In past we tried to cleanse political funding by giving tax exemptions to both donor and political party if payment by cheque. But it has not worked.

“Our taxation approach is absolutely clear. Cap of Rs 3 lakh for cash transaction is to curb black money. We are hopeful that GST will make generation of black money itself difficult,” he said.

Jaitley further said that it is time to abolish Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). “We intend listing several public sector units (PSUs) to make their functioning more transparent. We have much higher target for disinvestment as insurance sector companies are also included,” he said.

“Our priorities are very clear- Agriculture, rural India, infrastructure, social sector. We are constrained by fiscal prudence, but we have not cut expenditure to maintain fiscal deficit,” he said.