New Delhi: Getting on the job to revive the economy, finance minister Arun Jaitley and commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman have been briefed by secretaries on various challenges and policy options available with the government.
To push the ambitious Goods and Services Tax (GST), Mr Jaitley asked his officials to arrange an early meeting with the state finance ministers to resolve various issues which are holding up its implementation.
During the meeting with the revenue department, the finance minister inquired from the revenue officials the reasons for failure in achieving the tax collection target.
The officials attributed the shortfall in revenue collection to moderation in industrial activity and slowdown in imports. The issues concerning gold imports too came up for discussions during the presentation. The officials pointed out that hike in import duty on gold has led to increased smuggling of the yellow metal. The government is unlikely to take any step to reverse the retrospective tax amendment act in the budget. According to sources, Mr Jaitley was briefed by the expenditure department regarding various options to cut subsidy bill.
