GST to be rolled at midnight June 30: Jaitley

New Delhi, June 20

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the GST will be launched from mid-night of June 30-July 1.

The GST launch function would be held at Central Hall of Parliament and all MPs, CMs and state finance ministers would be invited.

Jaitley said: “President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President, PM, Lok Sabha Speaker and former PMs Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda to be on dais for GST launch.”

He said over medium to long term, revenues of the Centre, states will grow, besides the size of formal economy.

Jaitley said that in short term, there would be some challenges in switchover to GST.

“We had been saying GST will be rolled out by July 1; nobody had any business not to be ready,” he said.

He said revenue would go down under GST, but tax compliance will increase thereby protecting the base

He said: “Anti-profiteering clause in GST is a deterrent, which is not intended to be used unless forced to.”