New Delhi: As the government gears up for a fresh push to get the long-pending the goods and services tax law passed, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said the ‘one nation, one tax’ regime will reduce the taxation levels and also eliminate corruption.

Stressing that India cannot afford the kind of spectrum or coal mines controversies of the past, he said: “This whole idea of ‘one nation. one tax’ is extremely important for India, in not only reducing the level of tax but also for providing an ease (of doing business) and eliminating any forms of corruption".

He said India cannot afford to have an indirect tax system where one is taxed at every point. Jaitley was delivering the first Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Memorial Lecture at the India Islamic Cultural Centre in New Delhi. The proposed GST will subsume most of the indirect taxes.

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The government has listed the Constitutional Amendment Bill for the introduction of GST in Rajya Sabha for consideration and passage next week. The finance minister further said India will need all forms of investments.

“Now investment from private sector ... will come only if India becomes best possible investment destination. For that India has to get rid of corruption, India has to have a quicker decision making process, India has to have business environment which is extremely easy," he said.

Jaitley also said that despite easing foreign investment process, there are delays at states level. “... every time we delay a project, every time we put hurdles, you create an adverse environment where you lose jobs, ancillary units, and revenue which sends a bad picture of India to other future investments," he added.

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