Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the gathering during the inauguration of the Delhi section of the Dwarka Expressway and the Urban Extension Road-II (UER-II), in New Delhi.
Credit: PMO via PTI
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday sought states' cooperation to implement the next-generation reforms in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime as the Central government has already circulated the draft among them for study.
At an event after the inauguration of two expressways, Modi said the GST reform would benefit the poor and the middle class, as well as businesses.
Insisting that the Union government was keen on simplifying the GST law and revising tax rates, he said: "I hope that all states will cooperate in the initiatives of the Central government."
Modi announced the proposal to reform the GST law in his Independence Day speech on Friday from the Red Fort.
The GST Council is expected to meet next month to deliberate on the tax-reform proposal.
The current GST tax rates — zero on essential food items, 5 per cent on daily-use products, 12 per cent on standard goods, 18 per cent on electronic goods and services, and 28 per cent on luxury and sin goods — are expected to be replaced by two tax slabs of 5 per cent and 18 per cent, besides plus a special 40 per cent top bracket for five to seven demerit goods.
On Sunday, Modi also pitched for becoming "vocal for local", exhorting Indians to buy made-in-India products, stating, "If you are Indian, buy what is made in India."
He also took a swipe at Opposition leaders, saying those who "dance with a copy of the Constitution on their head" had maintained unjust and regressive laws while in power, trampling the spirit of the Constitution.
The PM also said Opposition parties had not been able to digest the BJP's success in Delhi and its adjoining states — Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.