In line with the expectation of major reform measures by the government, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday announced that two more "game changing reforms" are coming up."Two more game changing reforms are on the anvil in the form of a state-of-the art indirect tax system the GST (Goods and Services Tax) and the JAM to implement the direct benefit transfer scheme," Jaitley told the Lok Sabha while presenting the NDA government's first full budget. The JAM number trinity, as described by the Economic Survey 2014-2015 released on Friday, consist of the financial inclusion scheme Jan Dhan Yojana and the Aadhaar and mobile numbers, all of which allow the government to offer support to poor households.
The finance minister in his budget speech also proposed changes in the direct tax system to make it complementary with the far-reaching changes to be brought in by the GST.By subsuming a large number of central and state taxes into a single tax, the GST would mitigate cascading or double taxation in a major way and pave the way for a common national market. "We're moving in various directions to implement GST from next year," Jaitley told parliament.The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry has said that after the Reserve Bank cut interest rates in January, implementation of the GST would take care of the other major demand of Indian industry.