AP Chief Secretary Says State to Run Campaign on Benefits of GST 2.0 Till Diwali

Vijayawada: AP Chief Secretary (CS) K. Vijayanand underlined on Thursday that a special campaign will be organised from Dasara to Diwali to create awareness among people about the benefits of GST 2.0, announced by the Central Government. In this regard, Vijayanand organised a meeting at the state secretariat on Thursday to sensitise secretaries about the reductions in GST on various goods. He asked the senior officials to successfully run the GST campaign, just as they organised the YogaAndhra programme successfully. The new GST has come into effect from September 22 this month. Secretaries and heads of various departments have been asked to take up this programme at the field level in their respective departments and take appropriate steps to ensure that the changed GST is successfully implemented. The CS said a video conference will be held with the district collectors on Friday to create awareness about the new GST, which will cost the state exchequer Rs 8,000 crore but people will benefit accordingly. Collectors will be organising campaigns at the village, town, mandal, assembly constituency and the district levels. On the occasion, State Taxes chief commissioner A. Babu made a PowerPoint presentation on Super GST Super Savings GST 2.0. He provided details of the month-long campaign, including Fruits of GST to Every House from 25th to 29th of this month. He pointed out that common people have benefited with GST reduction on household articles, essential goods, food, medicines, education, stationery, clothes, and sports, women, children and transport items. From September 30 to October 6, awareness will be created among those working in agriculture and other professions. Sensitisation programmes related to human resource development and digital technology, education, life insurance and health insurance, electronics, entrepreneurship, e-commerce and gig economy will be held from October 7 to October 13. From October 14 to October 18, information will be spread about the benefits reaching sectors like building, construction and development, tourism and hospitality, transportation and logistics, toys, sports goods, renewable energy, automobiles and manufacturing. Babu the concluding programme of the month-long drive will be organised across the state on October 19, the day before Diwali. He said, in all, 65,000 events will be organised across the state during the month.