One year of GST: Arun Jaitley says best part is yet to come

One year of GST: Exuding confidence that higher revenue collections would enhance the capacity of the government to rationalise tax rates going forward, Union Minister Arun Jaitley today said that the best in terms of the impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the GDP growth, ease of doing business, expansion of trade and industry, Make in India initiative and promoting honest business practices is yet to come.
 
Speaking on the occasion of the first anniversary of the GST rollout, Jaitley said that rollout of the GST has not been disruptive in the last one year and dismissed the idea of a single rate GST being advocated by Congress president Rahul Gandhi as "flawed".
 
Arun Jaitley, who is recuperating from a kidney transplant, joined the 'GST-Day' celebrations through video conferencing, said the idea of a single rate GST can only work in a country where the entire population has 'similar and high' capacity to spend.
 
Observing that countries implementing GST had witnessed major disruption, Jaitley said he too had felt that it would cause disruption in the Indian economy, adding "I myself used to use the word disruptive when it came to major reform like GST because it takes time to settle down. But after one year of experience I'm not too sure whether I can use the word disruptive for GST reform. The smooth manner in which the changeover has taken place is almost unprecedented anywhere in the world." 
 
Jaitley said the economy has seen "effective gains" of GST roll out in the last year, adding "...The best of GST, in terms of its contribution to society, is yet to come?"
 
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GST which subsumed 17 local taxes was rolled out on July 1, last year. Currently over 1.14 crore businesses are registered under the new tax regime. In the current fiscal, mop up from GST reportedly topped Rs 1.03 lakh crore in April, Rs 94,016 crore in May and Rs 95,610 crore in June.