A slew of important announcements were made by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Niti Aayog, whose apex body is the council comprising of ministers including the chief ministers and other Aayog’s members.
In NITI Aayog’s third meeting held on Sunday, Narendra Modi highlighted the need for shifting to a January-December fiscal year. He also backed the idea of conducting state assemblies and Lok Sabha elections simultaneously. Modi opened the meeting with remarks highlighting his conviction for GST. He said: “The consensus on GST reflects the spirit of ‘one nation, one aspiration, one determination.”
PM Modi pitched for a transformational shift from April-March financial year to January-December. He informed that prior to the British Rule, India’s financial year was started from May 1. However, owing to compliance with the British policies, India adopted a financial year from April-March.
PM Modi also furnished a strong reason as to why a country like India will benefit from January-December financial year. NaMo said that in a country like India where agricultural income holds crucial importance, budgets must be prepared immediately after receiving details of the agricultural incomes for the fiscal.
Modi, however, did not spell out a triggering deadline for introducing this shift. He batted for the final rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on July 1. He urged all ministers to make the required legislative arrangements for a seamless rollout of the paradigm indirect tax regime transformation from July 1.
GST – One nation, One Tax will usher in a streamlined course of indirect taxation. The GST tax is a subsuming tax which will encapsulate central excise, service tax, Value Added Tax (VAT) and other local levies. It was led by India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who spews strong conviction for July 1 rollout.
PM Modi reiterated that India is suffering from political and economic mismanagement “Because of poor time management, many good initiatives and schemes had failed to deliver the anticipated results,” PM Modi pointed out. “There is a need to develop robust arrangements that could function amidst diversity,”he added.
PM Modi also urged states, local governments and NGOs to decide goals for 2022 and work in tandem to accomplish the desired goals. NaMo, in his speech also gave due impetus to Cooperative Federalism which is the way forward to a ‘New India’.
He urged all state heads to “speed up capital expenditure and infrastructure creation” to give a fillip to India’s growth pace.
“Niti Aayog is working on a 15-year long term vision, 7-year medium-term strategy, and 3-year action agenda,” PM Modi said.
The meeting of the NITI Aayog was held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Although, non-BJP chief ministers of states including Punjab, Tripura, Karnataka and Bihar also marked their presence at the event, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were absent from the meeting, which mapped the story of India’s future growth and development.
