Debate on 12% GST rate on sanitary napkins 'ill-informed': FM Arun Jaitley

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that the ongoing debate regarding 12% GST imposition on sanitary napkins is 'ill-informed'. Defending the tax slab, the Finance Minister said that if the government would reduce the tax then the Indian manufacturers would lose their businesses to Chinese products. 

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Jaitley said, "If you reduce the 12% [tax rate on sanitary napkins]...we won’t have an Indian manufacturer left". 

To further support his point, he further added that the effective tax on sanitary napkins, taking input tax credits into account, was about 3%-4%, as compared with around 13% before the Goods and Services Tax regime was rolled out. 

Arun Jaitley also addressed 5th Annual Defence Estates Day lecture and said improved macroeconomic fundamentals has placed India on the growth trajectory of 7-8 per cent and the country would have to invest heavily in infrastructure over the next two decades to graduate into a middle income economy.

"India today, in the last three years, was for the first time in history, has been the fastest growing major economy and we do hope that in the first instance we evolve into a middle income economy and subsequently we graduate into a developed economy. That's the economic roadmap that we have for us," he said.

"If we have to aspire to reach this, India will need to upgrade infrastructure over the next two decades. We need a lot of investment and we will need a lot of spending," he said.