FM Arun Jaitley says GST has opened new horizons for people to do business

A day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claimed the "days of GST and demonetisation are behind us", he said on Friday that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had made it easy for traders to spread business activities in any part of the country. He added the market place for traders had opened the horizons and there's lesser tax compliance burden.

Reiterating the structural reforms would benefit the economy in the medium and long-term, the FM, responding to questions on Q2 growth estimates, said: "The GST has made doing business and trade very easy. The market size for every trader has grown. Now whole country is his market."

The Finance Minister on Thursday said the country was back on the growth trajectory and the latest GDP boost from 5.7 per cent in the first quarter to 6.3 per cent in the second quarter would give fillip to job creation in the country. He also said the GDP growth of 6.3 per cent this quarter had been helped by a rapid growth in manufacturing that increased from 1.2 per cent in the first quarter to 7 per cent in the second quarter.

"The most significant aspect is the fact that this quarter's positive result has been significantly reflected in the growth in manufacturing. Fixed capital formation, being up to 4.7%, means the investment is going upward. Since May 2014, out of the 13 quarters, we have clocked upwards 7 per cent eight times, and we fell below 6 per cent only once in the last quarter. Therefore, the current figures mark the reversal - enabled by manufacturing and positive investment - in the growth trend," he said.

In the first quarter, India's GDP growth had slipped to 5.7 per cent, lowest in the last 13 quarters. In the previous quarter January-March, the growth rate had come down to 6.1 per cent. With the January-March quarter result, India had lost its fastest growing economy to China, which grew at 6.9 per cent. The slowdown was largely due to the demonetisation which brought down the economic activities in formal and informal sectors.