Chennai: With landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) now a law, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday hoped the government will set up a GST Council soon and reduce cascading effect of indirect taxes.
The GST, which will transform India's USD 2 trillion economy and 1.3 billion consumers into a single market for the first time, has been ratified by 19-20 states after Parliament nod last month, thereby qualifying to Presidential assent, he said.
“And I do hope the finance ministry will take appropriate steps to set up the GST council to fix the rate because it is the responsibility of the GST Council that one uniform rate of goods and services is introduced in our economy,” he said at the centenary celebrations of Karur Vysya Bank here.
GST, which will replace an array of central and state indirect taxes like excise duty, service tax and VAT, will “not only be a one uniform rate of taxes but it will also be single point taxation not multi-point taxation and therefore the cascading effect would not be very serious,” he said.
Mukherjee said the effort made over almost one and half decade fructified with the passage of GST legislation.
