THE TELEGRAPH MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017 Calls r rapid GST action OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT New Delhi, April 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a Niti Aayog meeting today called upon states to work with the Centre to meet the July deadline for GST and take the initiative for a January- December financial year, “The Prime Minister reit- erated that the legislative arrangements at the state-level for GST should be put in place without delay,” a government statement released after the third governing council meet- ing of the Niti Aayog said. GST (Goods and Services Tax), which will subsume cen- tral excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies, is sched- uled to be rolled out from July1. Parliament has already passed the supporting GST bills and the states are re- quired to pass their separate legislations. “Tam convinced that the vi- sion of ‘New India’ can only be realised through the com- bined effort of all the states and chief ministers,” Modi said at the Niti meeting that deliberated on a 15-year vision document on development. “Niti Aayog is working on a 15-year long term vision, seven-year medium-term strategy and three-year action agenda,” he told the meeting, attended by chief ministers and union ministers. Niti Aayog has came out with 300 action points on growth at its third governing council meet here today. ») Arvind Panagariya, Niti’s vice-chairman, said: the dura- tion of the “action agenda” was the same as the period of the 14th Finance Commission's award, which will ensure time- ly availability of funds to both the Centre and states. The plan envisages the country growing at 8 per cent over the next 15 years and has sought the comments from states. Giving a big push to the Digital India initiative, the a es Discussion points States must pass their ..GST bills quickly @States urged to consider _December-Jan fiscal year @A 15-year vision plan; a seven-year medium-term strategy; a three-year ac- rks Panel envisages 8%: __growth over next 15 years @Niti chalks up 300 action @States should use electronic platform for procurement Prime Minister called upon states to use the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) platform to procure goods and services as this would help in reducing corruption and increase transparency. He said the use of technologies such as BHIM and Aadhaar would result in significant savings to states. Referring to the change in the budget dates, Modi said it was in the interest of India’s predominantly rural economy to prepare the budget immedi- ately after the receipt of agri- cultural incomes for the year. He added that there have been suggestions to follow January-to-December as fi- nancial year and urged states to take the initiative in this re- gard. Modi noted that while there has been a 40 per cent in- crease in overall fund alloca- tion to states between 2014-15 and 2016-17, the percentage of. funds tied'to Central schemes declined ‘from 40 per cent to'25 percent. . States need “to speed up capital expenditure and infra- structure creation,” he said. Stating that poor infra- structure in the country is hampering economic develop- ment, the Prime Minister said more expenditure on basic in- frastructure such as roads, ports, power and rail would help to speed up growth. a