Agartala, Sep 24 (IANS) Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha said on Wednesday that everyone, from buyers to sellers, is happy with the new GST (Goods and Services Tax) reforms.

Participating in a campaign on the GST reforms at the Maharajganj market, Tripura’s main commercial hub, the Chief Minister said that people are thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the reduction in the prices of goods, especially basic and essential items.

“India can be the best in the world in terms of economy in the future,” said Saha. He said that, on the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the new GST reforms, which came into effect on September 22.

“Today, I visited Maharajganj market, the largest in the state, to check the implementation of this new system. I spoke to both traders and buyers and learned about their reactions to the work done by the Prime Minister. It was evident that there was a happy atmosphere due to the reduction in the prices of goods. For this, people expressed their gratitude to the Prime Minister,” Saha stated.

The Chief Minister also recalled that earlier, there were many types of taxes. “When goods left the factory, tax had to be paid. There was road tax, VAT (Value Added Tax), and additional taxes when moving goods from one state to another. When all these were combined, GST was introduced, but it created a lot of commotion at the beginning,” he said. Noting that the GST has now been simplified from five slabs to two slabs, the Chief Minister said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated tax reform, the opposition said that the country would be ruined and that the economy would collapse.

“But in the end, we have seen that the Indian economy has moved from 11th place to 4th place globally. Along with this, the Prime Minister is talking about building a Viksit Bharat by 2047. By 2050 or later, India may become the best economy in the world,” he added.

–IANS

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