Demonetisation decision casts its shadow on the rollout of GST by Sep 16, 2017

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday that there is a Constitutional compulsion to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and asserted that the government’s intention is to kick off the ambitious reform by April 1.

“So, you have a Constitutional compulsion to have a GST in place before September 16 (2017), otherwise the country doesn’t run, and the tax is absolutely essential. Therefore, our intention is it gets implemented from April 1, 2017, that was the original intention,” Jaitley said at a function.