New Delhi, July 1: The Centre is going to celebrate July 1, 2018, as GST day, to mark the first anniversary of the launch of the new indirect taxation regime. The Finance Ministry termed Goods And Services Tax (GST) as a fitting tribute to the spirit of cooperative federalism. The event for celebrating the first anniversary of the new tax regime is to be organised today at newly constructed Ambedkar Bhawan in New Delhi.

Union Minister Arun Jaitley will participate in this event via video conferencing. Union Minister for Railways, Coal, Finance and Corporate Affairs Piyush Goyal will preside over as the chief guest of the day-long event.  Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla will be the guest of honour. The ministry also hailed Indian people for their support to make this reform a success.

According to the Finance Ministry, introduction of the E-Way (electronic way) bill ensures smooth movement of goods throughout the country. The E-Way bill makes it compulsory pre-registration of goods worth over Rs. 50,000 when they are transported over 10 km. The E-Way bill system was introduced on April 1, 2018, and it is adopted by most of the states and union territories. As per media reports, the government has collected Rs one lakh crore from GST till April.

The Finance ministry claimed that GST has stitched the country into one economic union, and it also promoted ‘Make in India’ campaign as Ease of Business was improved. According to a report published in NDTV Profit, The GST Council has met for 27 times and no occasion has risen so far that required voting to decide any matter. All the decisions have been taken by consensus. The opposition parties from the very beginning have been criticising the government for bringing GST as taxpayers are facing difficulties in filing returns.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 01, 2018 08:22 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).