GST will benefit industry, consumers: Naveen

Bhubaneswar: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been identified as a major financial reform and will transform the entire country into a single market, said chief minister Naveen Patnaik here on Wednesday.

Inaugurating a workshop on GST bill for legislators at state secretariat, the chief minister said, “The enactment of the state GST will mark the beginning of a journey. We need to ensure that a robust administrative structure and information technology is put in place. It is imperative to manage the transition process through capacity building of tax officials and the members of trade and industry.”

“The cascading of taxes will be minimized as a large number of central and state taxes will be subsumed into the GST. This will benefit the industry and the consumers”, he said, adding, over time the tax burden on most commodities is also expected to come down.

The one-day workshop was attended by MLAs of different parties, assembly speaker Pradip Amat and ministers.