Bhubaneswar, March 26: Union economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said today that there was full preparedness on the part of the central and state governments to roll out the goods and services tax (GST) from July 1.
"The GST is going to completely change the quality of our economy. It will change the way business is done in India and will also have an impact on eliminating black money or unaccounted transactions. It will form a robust transaction that will bring all other transactions into its net. It will have a long-term impact and will definitely add to our GDP growth," he said.
Speaking at the alumni meet of Demonstration Multipurpose School today, Das, a former student of the school, said he estimated the GDP growth to be around 7.5 per cent during the 2017-18 fiscal.
Das said that the figures had proved demonetisations detractors wrong. He said: "There were certain difficulties in some sectors, but overall there has been growth. The fact that the Central Statistics Office has estimated the current year will end with 7.1 per cent GDP is testimony that the effect of demonetisation has been very marginal on India's economy."
Speaking on the government's efforts to check black money in the economy, Das said steps such as setting up of special investigation team, signing agreements with international organisations, coming up with laws on black money held by Indians abroad and launching Garib Kalyan Scheme had been taken for this purpose.
Das said demonetisation had little or no impact on India's economy. "Demonetisation will help in eliminating the impact of a shadow economy and will have more focus on a real economy. India's economic growth is robust and stable. Things are very much back on tracks. There is enough cash in our banks."
A number of distinguished alumni of the school were present on the occasion. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone for the auditorium of the school.
"The alumni will also form a corpus fund of Rs 20 lakh for development of the school," said Rajib Sekhar Sahoo, president of the school.
