“We are now at a stage in GST that after the passage of constitution amendment laws, we have an entire set of rules and regulations that have been approved,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at the Annual Session, 2017 of the CII.
Jaitley added that the rates would not be significantly different from the rates in the existing system. “Profit is not a bad word. Profiteering is not a bad word. Unfair enrichment is. Therefore, the benefit of reduced tax is something that consumers are entitled to,” Jaitley said.
The minister continued to say that in the entire effort to simplify both direct and indirect tax structure, some “tough steps” are required to see that India increasingly becomes a tax-compliant society.
“Higher resource with the state is going to now mean greater investment in infrastructure and greater investment in rural India and these are going to be the two primary drivers of growth,” he said.
Abolishing FIPB
The Finance Minister said that the government is in the final stages of doing away with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
“Ninety percent of the investment in India comes under the automatic route. So for the balance 10 percent, do we need multiple forums to give approval or we need just one forum in one ministry?” he asked.
Jaitley had announced in the Budget for 2017-18 the government’s intent to abolish the FIPB and replace it with a new system as part of the government’s broader strategy to ease FDI rules, remove procedural delays and the turn India into a global investment hotspot.
“The process of ease of doing business, the process of eliminating all governmental discretion and resorting to market mechanism in allocation of all resources … has enabled you don’t have to visit North Block or South Block,” he further said.
The Cabinet is soon likely to take up a new mechanism to approve investment applications and hastening fund flows.
Source : Money Control