GST passage conveyed positive global cues: FM

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (pictured) said Parliament’s passage of the constitutional amendment Bill on a national goods and services tax (GST) had changed the global perception about India. Credit availability, he added, was achallenge for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) but amendments Parliament is considering to the Companies Act of 2013 would help ease this. He was speaking at the launch of a MSME database portal and finance facilitation portal here. There were questions on India’s appetite for reforms but the government had kept the pace by initiating various steps, such as notifying amendments for a Monetary Policy Committee, enactment of the Aadhaar Act and the Bankruptcy Code, the minister said. The government was committed to ease of doing business and passage of GST was a step in this direction, he added. He said MSMEs were the backbone of the economy. In the Companies Act, there were provisions like related party transactions, which had resulted in difficulties for the sector. The amendment was before Parliament, and it was important the sector grew, given that it creates more jobs than the organised and large corporate segment, said Jaitley. – www.business-standard.com[12-08-2016]