GST launched: Narendra Modi, Pranab Mukherjee usher India into new unified tax regime
Top leaders, industrialists and economists descended on Friday to witness the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the Central Hall of Parliament
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President Pranab Mukherjee, who piloted the first constitutional amendment for unifying more than a dozen central and state taxes, shared a specially erected dais in the Central Hall of Parliament. At the stroke of midnight, Mukherjee and Modi pressed two buttons on a glass box decorated with orchids and GST inscribed on it. PTI
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Top leaders, industrialists and economists descended on Friday to witness the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the Central Hall of Parliament which opened for a midnight ceremony for the first time in two decades. The last midnight event was held in 1997 on the occasion of golden jubilee of Indian independence. PTI
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Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda too were on the dais with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the president and the prime minister. PTI
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Almost the entire council of ministers and MPs from ruling alliance sat in the circular hall along with opposition leaders from the Samajwadi Party, the BJD, the NCP and the JD-U. The Congress, the Left, the TMC and the RJD boycotted the ceremony. PTI
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Seated in the front row were NCP leader Sharad Pawar, BJP president Amit Shah and senior BJP leader LK Advani. PTI
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Subramanian Swamy, a bitter critic of GST-Network – the IT provider for the new indirect tax regime — was also present at the launch event. He had called the GSTN a “a shady organisation” and said it was a “grave security” issue. In this image Swamy is seen in conversation with Minister of Water Resources Uma Bharti. PTI
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RBI Governor Urjit Patel was also present at the rollout event. Among other dignitaries present were Member of Parliament cum cine star Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha and industry doyen Ratan Tata. PTI
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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the rollout of GST will ease inflation, make tax avoidance difficult and boost GDP growth. He also said that the implementation of the unified tax should be seen as the beginning of a new journey that will expand the country’s economic horizon. “The old India was economically fragmented. New India will create one tax, one market, one nation. It will be in India where Centre and states work together towards the common goal of shared prosperity,” he added. PTI
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