Upward movement of global economy to help India: FM

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday exuded confidence that the upward movement of the global economy will also help India which has been growing at the "new normal" growth rate of 7-8 per cent.

Replying to a debate on the second batch of supplementary demands of grants in the Lok Sabha, he said the decision to bring petroleum products under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be taken by the GST Council.

The lower house later approved the supplementary demands envisaging a total additional expenditure of about Rs 66,113 crore, of which net outgo would be Rs 33,379 crore.

The minister also took a dig at the Congress, saying that there was no talk of 'Gabbar Singh Tax' when the overall indirect tax rate was 31 to 31.5 per cent on average before introduction of the GST.

"When you imposed 31.5 per cent tax (including excise, VAT, CST and cascading effect), nobody remembered the Gabbar Singh Tax. Now tax rate is only 18 per cent," Jaitley said.

During the election campaign in Gujarat, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had dubbed the GST as 'Gabbar Singh Tax'.

On the issue of inclusion of petroleum goods in the GST regime, Jaitley dared the Congress party to ask their chief ministers in five states to openly say that they favour GST on petroleum goods.

He further said that petroleum goods are zero rated under the GST and a decision would be taken by the GST Council on whether to bring them under the new tax regime.

The government, he said, could not have postponed GST rollout as it was constitutionally binding to have the new tax regime by September 16, 2017.

He also assured the House that no state will lose revenue on account of implementation of GST as there is a guarantee by the Centre to compensate them for 5 years.

Referring to the global economy, Jaitley said there was a "visible reversal" and upwards movement will help India which has grown by 7-8 per cent, a new normal, in the past three-and -half years.