New Delhi :Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the defeat of the coalition NDA in Bihar will not have any impact on investor sentiment and the economic reforms will continue.
“The poll impact won’t deter investor confidence and sentiment… I think investors are very wise people, they will see the performance of this government,” he told PTI.
“They will judge us by our working style and we will provide good governance.”
“Many reforms are with executive decisions. Those will continue. Many legislative issues also get passed by Parliament. In some cases, there are delays, but those will be sorted out,” he said.
To a question on the pending GST Bill, he said this is a priority for the government and it will try to get it passed.
He expressed hope that Bihar would support the legislation because as a consuming state, it would benefit from the new indirect tax legislation.
“Bihar and the JD(U) had supported this in the Lower House… If Nitish Kumar, as a responsible leader, has been elected on the plank of development, then certainly he wants more revenue for Bihar…,” he said.
On whether he would talk to Nitish Kumar for supporting GST, he said, “I will speak to the new government that they should support the Bill.”
The government has plans to roll out GST from April 1, 2016, but the Constitution Amendment Bill is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling NDA does not have a majority.
Once rolled out, it will subsume various levies like excise, service tax, sales tax, octroi, and the like and ensure a single indirect tax regime for the entire country.
PTI