‘Double bonanza’ for Northeast: PM Modi hails GST reforms; urges Arunachal traders for swadeshi push

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday interacted with local taxpayers, traders and industry representatives in Arunachal Pradesh, calling it a "double bonanza" while addressing a GST Bachat Utsav event in Itanagar.PM Modi met artisans, shopkeepers and industry leaders dealing in a range of products, highlighting the benefits of the recently implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate reduction. "From today, next generation GST reforms have been implemented and GST bachat utsav has started. On the occasion of festivals the people have gotten a double bonanza," the Prime Minister said.

The restructuring of the GST framework was cleared during the 56th meeting of the GST Council earlier this month.

The earlier four-tier tax system has now been simplified into two main slabs of 5% and 18%, while a separate 40% bracket will continue to apply to luxury and sin goods."Generally, the first rays of the sun fall on Arunachal Pradesh, but years have passed in trying to get the rays of development here. I have come here before 2014 too, stayed along with you. Nature has given Arunachal so much, the land, the people, the capability, there is so much," he added.

Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu praised the Prime Minister for his continued focus on the Northeast’s development and thanked him for the GST reforms. “The GST Bachat Utsav is beginning today. I want to express my gratitude to PM Modi. Our traders and the public have received significant benefits under the next-generation GST reforms,” Khandu said. Later in the day, the Prime Minister is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for multiple development projects worth over Rs 5,100 crore in Itanagar, the Prime Minister’s Office said. PM Modi will also travel to Tripura to offer prayers at the Mata Tripura Sundari Temple in Matabari, where he will inaugurate new development works at the temple complex.