Rajiv Pratap Rudy: GST to curb corruption in country

PATNA: Union minister of state for skill development Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Thursday said strengthening of Goods and

Services Tax

(GST) regime in the country would require deployment of five lakh skilled computer operators to run the GST Network (GSTN) at business and trade units.

“We have started the process to give specialised training to five lakh computer operators. The deployment of data entry operators would strengthen the GST,” Rudy said, adding Bihar would hugely benefit from the GST regime, as unlike some other states, it is mainly a buyer state or consumer state. Contrasting the political ideologies of CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad with that of BJP, Rudy said, “We believe in nationalism. But they and their constituents are not able to rise above caste. The BJP has been trying its level best to change the state’s politics, but appears to have got stuck somewhere.”

The minister said following demonetisation, at least 1 lakh shell companies have been derecognised. “Its significance can be easily gauged by some political families who used to run such companies for shady deals. They earned Rs 1,000 crore, and one does not really know how much. Former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi can throw more light on it,” Rudy said, in an apparent reference to Lalu family. Otherwise referring to the salient features of GST, he said the country has overnight moved 30 places up on the parameters of ease of doing business. “The four tax slabs of the GST have made the business and trade simple and transparent. Earlier, we used to talk about cooperative federalism, but under PM Narendra Modi we have adopted economic federalism. Our economic federalism is far stronger than what used to be in other governments,” Rudy said, adding the GST would also help in curbing corruption