Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had flagged issues hindering the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the Congress-led government at the centre when he was the chief minister of Gujarat and finally solved them after becoming the prime minister of the country.

He also hit out at the Congress for delaying GST’s implementation during the debate on the motion of thanks to the President of India in the parliament on Thursday.

‘If you knew so much about GST, why did you delay its implementation,’ he asked, before recounting his meeting with former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee over the need to iron out differences.

‘As Gujarat CM, I had told then Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee to address the concerns of manufacturing states before rolling out GST. Shri Arun Jaitley addressed those concerns before implementing GST. As PM, I resolved the issues that I had raised as CM,’ the PM said.

Proposal to bring India under the GST regime was discussed both by NDA’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and the subsequent UPA governments led by the Congress, but it couldn’t be implemented owing to opposition by states.

Modi said his government was open to taking suggestions from even the Congress-ruled states to improve the GST regime, which was introduced by his government’s first term.

‘GST was changed several times. GST is a major achievement for India’s federal structure. Do we stop making changes to it if suggestions come from Congress-ruled states? No, we won’t. We will make changes according to the need of the hour,’ the PM said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also listed several firsts achieved by his government in Jammu and Kashmir after Governor’s rule was imposed in the state while supporting the centre’s move to abrogate Article 370.

‘For the first time in decades, people of Jammu and Kashmir got benefits of reservation. Block Development Council polls were held, RERA came into being there. For the first time, Jammu and Kashmir got a comprehensive start-up, trade and logistics policy. Anti-corruption bureau was set up there,’ said the PM.

Prime minister said in the 18 months in J&K, 2.5 lakh toilets were made, panchayat elections were held, over three lakh electricity connections were given, over 3.5 lakh Ayushman health gold cards were handed out and women and elders were connected with the government’s pension scheme.

‘Only 3.5 thousand houses were made under PM housing scheme till March 2018 while in the last two years over 24 thousand houses were made under the same scheme,’ he said.

Recalling that Tamil Nadu MP and MDMK leader Vaiko had called August 5 a black day for Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said August 5 was ‘a black day for those who promoted terrorism and separatism’ in Jammu and Kashmir.

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