PRS Legislative has done an analysis of what the President of India said in his budget speech last year, in terms of the signals that he gave to the Government of India in his speech, and the current status of the projects he mentioned or the focus areas he talked about. View PRS' pdf here. Some excerpts that are relevant for MediaNama readers are reproduced below, with permission from PRS. Do see the complete document, because it references information from across government portals, press releases and responses to parliamentary questions: Simplifying the tax regime What the President said: “To put in place a simplified, progressive and non-adversarial tax regime” Current Status: The Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016 was enacted in September, 2016 to allow for the levy of a Goods and Services Tax (GST). (For more details on the Act, see here) Model Central and State Goods and Services Tax Bills, 2016 were introduced in November 2016. The Model Central/ State GST Bills provide for the levy of: (i) the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), (ii) State Goods and Services Tax (SGST), (iii) levy of integrated Goods and Services Tax and (iv) compensation to states. (For more details on CGST, SGST and IGST, see here.) Jan Dhan Yojana What the President said: “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has gone beyond opening of bank accounts, by offering basic financial services and security to the poor” Current status: As of January 2017, around 27 crore accounts have been opened under the scheme. Out…
