The Finance Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented a status report on measures that were announced on Aug 23, Aug 30 and Sept 14 earlier this year to boost the economy. The minister informed about the measures that have been fulfilled and which are still under consideration by ministries.
Crux of the Matter
Out of the total number of 32 measures announced in August, 13 have been fulfilled. With respect to 12 measures in September to boost exports, 3 have been fulfilled and the rest of the announcements are under active consideration by relevant ministries.
BS IV vehicles purchased till 2020 March 31 will remain operational for entire period of registration.
Online “Origin Management System”, a Common Digital Platform for Issuance of electronic Certificates of Origin has been launched on Sept 16
To boost demand for automobile industry, government has lifted the ban on purchase of new vehicles by Ministries/Departments.
In a GST Refund drive to MSME‘s within 30 days claims of Rs. 10,490 crore have been settled which is 97% of the returns.
A Task Force has been constituted to draw up a National Infrastructure Pipeline which will pump in Rs. 100 lakh crores for developing modern infrastructure over 5 years.
Curiopedia
History of GST – A single common “Goods and Services Tax (GST)” was proposed and given a go-ahead in 1999 during a meeting between the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his economic advisory panel, which included three former RBI governors IG Patel, Bimal Jalan and C Rangarajan. In 2002, the Vajpayee government formed a task force under Vijay Kelkar to recommend tax reforms. In 2005, the Kelkar committee recommended rolling out GST as suggested by the 12th Finance Commission. After the defeat of the BJP-led NDA government in the 2004 Lok Sabha election and the election of a Congress-led UPA government, the new Finance Minister P Chidambaram in February 2006 continued work on the same and proposed a GST rollout by 1 April 2010. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government was elected into power. With the consequential dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha, the GST Bill – approved by the standing committee for reintroduction – lapsed. Seven months after the formation of the then Modi government, the new Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the GST Bill in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP had a majority. In February 2015, Jaitley set another deadline of 1 April 2017 to implement GST. In May 2016, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution Amendment Bill, paving way for GST. However, the Opposition, led by the Congress, demanded that the GST Bill be again sent back for review to the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha due to disagreements on several statements in the Bill relating to taxation. Finally in August 2016, the Amendment Bill was passed. Over the next 15 to 20 days, 18 states ratified the Constitution amendment Bill and the President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to it. After the enactment of various GST laws, Goods and Services Tax was launched all over India with effect from 1 July 2017. More Info
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