GST by next year: Narendra Modi

Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday raised hopes that the much-delayed Goods & Services Tax (GST) could be rolled out early next year. The GST, regarded as a critical piece of economic reform, has been held up for several years due to political wrangling between the BJP and Congress.

Speaking at software industry body Nasscom’s Digitizing Tomorrow Together conference, which he attended along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Prime Minister reeled out a number of ‘ease of doing business’ measures that his government had already taken, even as Ms Merkel suggested that foreign investments into India would depend on the “framework conditions made available to business” in the country.

Mr Modi described India as a “bright spot” in the midst of a global economic slowdown, and assured foreign investors of favourable business conditions, including strong intellectual property rights protection.

“We have abolished retrospective tax, extended the validity of industrial licences, and are moving up the ‘ease of business’ rankings,” he said.

“The GST Bill has been re-introduced in Parliament. We hope to roll it out in 2016,” he added.

The Prime Minister said, “Bengaluru’s software moves the world’s hardware” to much cheer, adding that the country was on the threshold of a digital revolution that had to be leveraged to meet the aspirations of its billion-plus population.

Modi, Merkel and Mamata
A 18-year-old industrial trainee, Mamata, became the cynosure of all eyes during PM Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to German Bosch’s Vocational Training Centre in Bengaluru on Tuesday morning — by virtue of being one of the few girls in what’s traditionally been a man’s world.