Slowdown will not impact social sector spending: Nirmala Sitharaman

The GST council will take on GST rates reduction, she said

The slowdown in the economy will not affect budgetary targets for social sectors, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday.

“The targets given to tax departments are decided after discussion. If there are any challenges in the collection, that case will be considered. That will not affect social sector spending,” she said.

Also, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will take up GST rates reduction, she said.

The government will respond to all the sectoral issues faced by the economy through consultation, she added.

Also, to improve transparency, tax claims issued from October 1 will have a distinct document identification number (DIN), which will be issued through a centralised process and with approval. “We are adopting technology to make the process non-discretionary and transparent,” she said.

The finance minister earlier held discussions with industry bodies and income-tax officials in Kolkata on Friday.

Also while for tax officials it is necessary to perform the duty, they should not overreach, she added.

To a question on Café Coffee Day owner V G Siddhartha’s suicide, and whether these measures were a fallout of the incident, she said the death was unfortunate, adding that the whole process required more transparency, rather than a discretion-driven process.