GST top priority, tax rates to come down: Jaitley

New Delhi, Sep 7 (PTI) According top priority to theimplementation of GST, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley todaysounded confident on the tax rates coming down once theindirect taxation regime is put in place. The challenges before the government, he said, is to putpublic sector banks back on track and continue tooperationalise stalled infrastructure projects to furtherboost economic activity. As regards the implementation of Goods and Services Taxfrom April next year, the Finance Minister said, "We lookahead, it’s a very stiff target, we are running against time.I would certainly like to give it a try." "It (GST) will the plug the leakages. In the long run itwill probably stabilise the tax rate and move them down onceeffectively implemented," he added. Speaking at the event, ‘The Economist – India Summit2016’, Jaitley said the procedural formalities of collectingproceedings of all the states and sending it to the Presidentfor ratification are on. Once the assent is granted by President Pranab Mukherjee,the constitution amendment bill will have to be notified. After notification and constitution of the GST Council, hesaid, there are obviously some pending issues, which thecouncil will have to resolve. "If you ask me in terms of economic priorities evenoutside Parliament, I would say that certainly implementationof GST is the top priority, putting the bank on track is avery important priority and the stalled projects, a lot ofthem have been cleared and this process must continuously goon… I think these are the obvious priorities," Jaitley said. Talking about state-owned banks, he said, India is notready for their privatisation and present characteristics ofPSU banks will continue except for IDBI Bank. "We are trying to consolidate some of the banks, which mayotherwise find it difficult in a competitive environment," hesaid. (MORE) PTI DP NKD CSABK