April 1 deadline for GST rollout seems challenging: Sinha

Amid ongoing political turbulence, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha today said that meeting April 1 deadline for GST rollout seems to be "challenging."
"Legislative side is complicated because you need two-third majority in the Rajya Sabha, you need 50 per cent of states to pass it and then we have to get GST Bill to be passed...So there is lot of heavy lifting to done on legislative side which makes this challenging in terms of April 1, 2016," Sinha said.
The Constitutional Amendment Bill to roll out Goods and Services Tax is stuck in the Rajya Sabha due to stiff opposition by the Congress party and might be delayed further because of the tough stance taken by the main opposition party over the National Herald case issue.

"We could implement GST from April 1, 2016 from administrative point of view," he said while talking to a global audience on YouTube on India's reforms agenda.
"If indeed the legislation gets passed across the Centre and states then there is no reason why we cannot implement in the year at any point, this is after all a transaction tax and then when it kicks in, it will kick in on all of those transactions," he said.
"We will keep pushing as far as GST is concerned. It will happen sooner rather than later," he added.

He also said that the present regime is pro-poor and pro-market.

Keeping this in mind, the government has framed some
policies specifically for eastern India to drive growth, Sinha said, adding that the first priority is connectivity.
Efforts are on for the development of roads and ports in this region including Odisha, while priority is also for providing telecom, mobile and Internet services in the hinterlands of the eastern region, he said.
Thrust is also on a series of social security programmes which are going to be beneficial for the country, he said, adding that programmes like Jan-Dhan Yojana, Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Suraksha Bima Yojana and Universal Health Coverage would be equally important for the eastern India to ensure robust safety net for everybody.

The third area is agriculture for which irrigation is important to enable farmers grow multiple crops, he said, adding that through Pradhan Mantri Krushi Sinchai Yojana, the government is trying to make sure that at least 60 per cent of land in the country gets irrigation.
Finally, the NDA government is focusing on 'Make in India' which aims at covering many industries in eastern India.
"Whether it is in iron and steel, in refining, aluminium, we have to ensure that we are globally competitive industries," Sinha said.
A number of steps including auctioning of natural resources, iron ore mines, infrastructure and building power plants have also been taken to support industrialisation, the minister said.