Bihar drubbing will not impact reforms: FM Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said BJP’s electoral drubbing in Bihar will not impact economy or the reforms programme and the government will go ahead with the process of enacting Goods and Services Tax (GST) law. “I don’t see it as a setback to the economy…structural reforms will continue. They should continue at a rapid pace,” he said and expressed the hope that JD(U) would support the Constitutional amendment bill to roll out the long-pending GST as the new tax structure would benefit Bihar. [caption id=“attachment_2490954” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Arun Jaitley. PTI[/caption] About reforms, Jaitley told television channels that government would continue them by taking executive actions and also in the Budget, which would be announced in February next year. To a question of the pending GST bill, he hoped that Bihar would support the legislation because as a consuming state it would benefit from the new indirect tax legislation. “Bihar and JD(U) had supported this in the Lower House…If Nitish Kumar, as a responsible leader, has been elected on the plank of development, then certainly he wants more revenue for Bihar,….,” Jaitley said. The government had planned to roll out GST,from 1 April, 2016 but the Constitution Amendment Bill is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA does not have a majority. Once rolled out, it will subsume various levies like excise, service tax, sales tax, octroi, etc, and ensure a single indirect tax regime for the entire country. Stating that GST roll out is a “matter of time, Jaitley said the “obstructionist” position of the Congress would not continue for long as the country’s mood is reform oriented. On whether he would talk to Nitish Kumar for supporting GST, he said, “I don’t see any reason, why just because he is in alliance with the Congress at the moment, he will…change his position. If he changes his position, then I will have to explain this and I am quite certain, as a responsible leader, that will not happen”. The government, he added, was open to suggestion to improve the architecture of the GST. “I am for a GST with a proper architecture, not for a GST with a defective architecture. So if there is any suggestion in the direction of strengthening GST and its architecture, I am certainly open to that,” he added. One what should be the rate of the GST, Jaitley said, “the lower the better.” Jaitley said the Bihar election outcome is not a setback to the economy. Asked about Moody’s Analytics report which said Prime Minister Narendra Modi must keep BJP members in check or risk “losing domestic and global credibility”, he said the commentary by the “young analyst” is incorrect. “India is the most tolerant society in the world… and I will reject any contention which says that a stray incident happening in any part of India makes it intolerant. India is tolerant, Some unfortunate incidents take place, that doesn’t make India an intolerant society. India is a liberal society, it will continue to remain one,” the minister said. He said the NDA government under Modi has changed the culture of Governance in the country and in terms of developmental politics, the Prime Minister has a particular agenda and will go ahead with that. “We are conscious of the political problem that arise. We will try as far as possible to tackle this problem and move ahead,” he said. Stressing that both executive and legislative reforms will get a push, he said, the Parliamentarians, irrespective of which side they sit on, are conscious of their responsibilities. PTI