Indian lawmakers across political parties should set aside their political differences and take urgent steps to put in place a “pure Goods and Services Tax (GST)” regime at the earliest, Sunil Kanoria, new President of industry body Assocham, has said.
A ‘pure GST’ could be a ‘ brahmastra’ for the economy that is buffeted by global headwinds such as unprecedented crash in commodity prices and uncertain geo-political situation after the Paris terror attacks, Kanoria said.
“We have been demanding a GST regime for a long time. If political differences are set aside and pure GST is introduced, then it could bring 1-2 per cent additional growth in GDP,” Kanoria said, in his first press conference after assuming charge at the helm of the apex industry body.
Kanoria said that it would be difficult for the country to achieve GDP growth level of 7.5 per cent in the current economic environment.
“I see the GDP growth this fiscal to hover around 7.2-7.3 per cent. It is certainly going to be lower than 7.5 per cent this fiscal going by the current trend,” he said.
Asked what he meant by “pure GST”, Kanoria said that he wanted a GST design that should unite India and not divide the country. “Having a GST is critical and a pure one is even more important. We need a GST that will solve our problems,” Kanoria said.
The proposed one per cent origin based inter-State tax would not be in the interest of industry and should not be pursued, Kanoria told BusinessLine .
Kanoria also made a case for allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail.
“India has to bite the bullet and take some hard decisions on this front (FDI in multi-brand retail). This is required in the interest of our coming generation,” said Kanoria, who is the Vice- Chairman and Managing Director of SREI Infrastructure Finance.
Private investments Kanoria, who is the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of SREI Infrastructure Finance, said that he expects private investment cycle to take off only sometime next year. The theme of his presidency would be “employment promotion through entrepreneurship”.
On the present state of the economy, he said that one of the main worrying aspects is lack of appetite for fresh investment which is further discouraged by lack of demand.
“As the Prime Minister has said, India has to become a nation of job creators rather than jobseekers. For that, improving the ease of doing business is a critical first step. So is better infrastructure, and more affordable access to finance and information, especially in small towns and villages”.
Intolerance issue On the issue of ‘intolerance’, Kanoria said that real India is highly democratic and cannot be an intolerant nation.
“The very fact that we are tolerating the intolerance itself is adequate proof to say that we are a tolerant country,” said Kanoria.