Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Monday said he was planning to send a number of proposals to make the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council and GST system much more efficient and transparent and more democratic, and these proposals would not require amendments in law.
“I will be very soon sending the reform proposals which won’t require any amendment in law or the Constitutional framework. The proposals would include how, by simply focusing on the manner of execution, the GST system can be made effective,” he said at a capacity-building programme on GST for the staff of the State’s Treasuries and Accounts Department in Chennai .
The programme was organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), which has entered into a Memorandam of Understanding with the T.N. Finance Department.
Mr. Thiaga Rajan reiterated that the GST in its present form is complex and flawed in its design. GST is the largest revenue earner for the Government of India, and it is important for those on the GST Council to work towards making it more efficient, transparent and fair and there is so much that can be improved, he said.
Mr. Thiaga Rajan also said his ambition was to build the most professional, most proficient, most computerized, technology-enabled real time management Finance Department in the history of India or in any State or Union. One of the keys to that goal was ensuring that all staff in the Department are given the tools and resources to improve their professionalism, their understanding and execution and also their connectivity to the government and public, he said.
Speaking at the event, Finance Secretary N. Muruganandam said in the one and half years of the new government taking over, the Finance Department has undertaken a lot of reforms. As announced by the Finance Minister in the State Budget, a comprehensive revision of the Treasury Code which dates back to 1937 is under way, he said.
A fund-tracking system for government funds is being developed by TCS and will be readied in six months, Mr. Muruganandam said. A study on restructuring of Treasuries, small savings and government data centre departments is also being carried out. A ‘training need’ assessment study for the Finance Department has already been going on and another one for the Treasuries would be undertaken too, he said.