Arun Jaitleyಪರಿಶೀಲಿಸಿದ ಖಾತೆ

Those who oppressed India with a 31% indirect tax and consistently belittled the GST must seriously introspect. Irresponsible politics and irresponsible economics is only a race to the bottom.

The political noise outside is inconsistent with the harmony inside the GST Council. It is a body that has behaved with utmost responsibility since its establishment.

The Congress legacy of indirect tax was a 31% tax. We transiently put them in the 28% slab. As the revenues kept increasing, we started bringing down the rates. Most of the commodities have seen tax reduced.

Multiple slabs were fixed transiently in order to ensure the tax on no commodity goes up radically. This contained the inflation impact. Most Aam Aadmi items were placed in the 0 or 5% tax bracket. Returns became online; assessments will be online; multiple inspectors disappeared

States were charging an entertainment tax from 35% to 110%. This came down radically. 235 items were being charged at either 31% tax or even higher. All except 10 such items were brought down immediately to 28%. The 10 such items were brought down to even a lower rate i.e.18%.

The GST from the date of its implementation, has changed the situation radically. All seventeen taxes were combined into one. The whole of India became one market. The interstate barriers disappeared. Entry into the cities became open with abolition of the entry tax.

India probably had the worst indirect tax system anywhere in the world. Both the Centre and the State Governments were entitled to levy a set of taxes. There were 17 taxes levied. An entrepreneur, therefore, faced seventeen inspectors, seventeen returns and seventeen assessments

Eighteen Months of the GST https://bit.ly/2ENPAjY 

The power existed and was used during the UPA Government also. How else will terrorists who use technology extensively be traced? Otherwise, the terrorists will use IT, but the intelligence and investigative agencies will be crippled.

Congress Party talks first and thinks later. There is no general snooping order. The power to intercept in the interest of national security and public order already exists in law. This is only an order as to who are the authorised agencies.

In fact, during UPA-II in a detailed debate in Parliament relating to a corporate lobbyist, the then Home Minister Shri P. Chidambaram strongly defended this power of interception being given to taxation authorities.

The rules required authorised agencies to be notified. In the absence of this authorisation, any police officer may start exercising the power.

There are safeguards, as prescribed by the Supreme Court, which are included in the rules. An interception or monitoring is only authorised under an specific approval of the Home Secretary.

The Information Technology Act has been in existence for almost two decades. Section 69 of the IT Act authorises in the interest of sovereignty, integrity etc. to direct a notified agency to intercept or monitor or decrypt an information stored in a computer resource.

Congress Party is running since morning an ill-informed campaign that Govt. has allowed snooping on computers and is violating the Right of Privacy. The Congress Party has got into the habit of speaking out first and understanding the issue only subsequently.

Our military is a professional one and subject to a civilian authority. We owe it to our armed forces the gratitude of having successfully defended this nation. After having ruled this country for decades, the grand old Party needs to mature.