July 1 to be celebrated as 'GST Day', government to highlight achievements

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"Even eyes need to adjust to new spectacles. GST is a transparent and fair system that prevents black money and corruption and promotes new governance culture."

With these words, Prime Minister Narendra Modi - along with the then President in Pranab Mukherjee - rolled out the much-touted Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the stroke of midnight exactly a year ago. And this Sunday, the government is celebrating one year of GST and plans to highlight how the country and the economy has benefited from the one-tax policy.

While the jury is still out on whether GST has achieved its listed objectives, the PM Modi-government continues to put it as one of its major achievements. With Lok Sabha elections of 2019 just months away, the government has termed July 1 as 'GST Day.'

A press release from the finance ministry on Saturday informed that union minister Piyush Goel will be the chief guest at an event to mark one year of GST while MoS Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla will be the guest of honour. "GST subsumed over a dozen local levies and transformed India into "one nation, one Tax" and binds the country into an Economic Union," the release further said.

Even as the government continues to highlight GST and its achievements, the opposition has maintained its two-pronged attack. The first of two main accusition is that GST has played havoc with small and medium-level businesses and enterprises. The second main accusation is that it remains ambigous and has not resulted in tax colection to as much as was claimed during its launch.