GST Highlights: Top remarks by PM Modi during midnight session in Parliament

“Though we have been in favour of GST, we believe there are pressing concerns, particularly among the small and medium level traders and manufacturing units, which remain unaddressed”, he said.

“I don’t think that there was a single time we thought we will miss the deadline”, Adhia said. “Today, after years, for a new economy, give new power to our federalism – there can be no better place than this”, PM Modi said to applause.

Restaurants will also have to produce different bills for liquor consumption as alcohol is not included in GST. “GST is a result of a broad consensus which was arrived at between the Centre and states”, Mukherjee said prior to GST rollout.

“It is not a success of any party or any government”.

Government and business leaders attended a midnight ceremony to launch the tax at the Indian parliament’s Central Hall.

However, the GST was originally envisaged as a simple system with just one tax each for all goods and all services, which is what it is like in most countries that follow the system. “It is an example of Team India’s strength and ability”, he said.

Mukherjee also said: “GST is a disruptive change”.

An end of tax arbitrage under the GST is estimated to save companies $14 billion in reduced logistics costs and efficiency gains. “It will help in containing black money and corruption”, he said. “There is also confusion about how to get the input credit”, he said.

India’s GST, unlike Singapore’s, has four bands set at 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent, depending on the item or service.

Indian opposition vowed Friday to boycott the launch of the government’s new national tax, adding to the strain ahead of the country’s biggest ever fiscal reform. It highlights the fact that India can rise above narrow politics and work for country’s benefit.

The measure is expected to make doing business easier by simplifying the tax structure and ensuring greater compliance, burnishing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s credentials as a reformer before a planned re-election bid in 2019.

He said that GST would lead to enormous savings of time and cost. And, finally it is a twist of fate that another BJP prime minister is fulfilling the dream of India’s first BJP prime minister. The second was on the occasion of silver jubilee of Independence in 1972 and golden jubilee in 1997.

Explaining the rationale, Jaitley said, ‘if an item’s total tax incidence is 6 per cent, it can not possibly be slotted under the 12 per cent category.