GST coupled with demonetisation’s impact can boost growth rate: Jaitley

Gandhinagar, Jan 11 (IANS) Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday that the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), coupled with the impact of demonetisation can give a formidable push to India's growth rate.

"The digitisation of economy that happened following demonetisation, which, subsequently, will lead to expansion of formal economy, and GST -- both these factors have the capacity to boost economy and increase the growth rate," Jaitley said here.

"I hope we will be able to see their impact this year only," he added at the conference on 'GST: The Game Changer for Indian Economy' organised as a part of the ongoing Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017.

The Finance Minister hoped that the critical issues of dual control and cross-empowerment in the GST will get resolved over the next few weeks.

"GST Council is deliberative democracy in action. Most of the issues have been sorted. Some critical issues remain and I hope... they will be sorted out," Jaitley said.

"We want the GST to be in force by April 1, if all issues are sorted out, he said, adding "Since the constitutional amendment has been passed, it is mandatory to implement the GST before September 16."

When GST merges all the taxes and makes India into one entity, it's an advantage to the assessee as there will be no cascading effect of tax and will lead to larger revenues for states, he said.

The next meeting of GST Council is scheduled on January 16, to discuss the critical issues of dual control and cross empowerment which deal with the assessee jurisdiction.

Talking about the inconvenience caused to various sectors because of the current cash crunch, he said difficult decisions initially pass through difficult phases and the real impact of demonetisation would be felt after this transient inconvenience.

"It can have temporary transient pain attacks, but in medium and long term, the roadmap on which the country is destined to move can change," he said.