1,00,000 jobs may be created to aid GST rollout: Infy cofounder

Infosys co-founder and investor Kris Gopalakrishnan on Friday said the country may see 10,000 to 1 lakh jobs being created in the next six months to support goods and services tax (GST) implementation. “Every year we need to create about 20 million new jobs, though I do not have seen any data or report. So, in my estimate, probably in next six months, we will see, may be 10,000 to 1 lakh jobs being created to support GST implementation,” he said on the sidelines of a CII event in Bengaluru.

“But, beyond six months, it is very difficult to say at this point of time, how much more it would increase,” Gopalakrishnan, who is the chairman of CII’s India Innovation Summit said.

The two-day 13th India Innovation Summit with the theme, ‘The New Wealth of Nations – Innovation and Intellectual capital’ will begin in Bengaluru on 13 July. The summit will cover subjects such as, teens as innovators to disrupt the existing businesses, rise of machines and future of human labour, india’s digital transformation into a cashless economy and the great expectations on the e-commerce industry – scaling the consumption economy, among others.

On concerns raised by the industry on anti-profiteering clause, Gopalakrishnan said it is time for the country to move forward as the government is open to make adjustments as and when it learns from feedbacks it gets during implementation.

On keeping out petroleum products from the ambit of GST, Gopalakrishnan said, “Every product should come into the ambit of GST.” “CII also have been pushing for GST implementation from 1 July. We did not want it to be further delayed.”

Asked about the effect of GST would have on shadow economy, Gopalakrishnan said the process of transition from a shadow economy to transparent economy has begun. From the angle of jobs also, Gopalakrishnan said, “Ninety per cent of jobs are in unorganised sector, only 10% of jobs are in organised sector. So, the transformation from unorganised to organised sector will take more time. GST is the beginning of this transformation.”