GST Day 1: India Inc Gives A Warm Twitter Welcome

As India enters a new tax regime under the Goods and Services Tax or GST from July 1, heads of major companies and industry bodies took to twitter to express support for the sweeping tax reform which is expected to give a huge momentum to the country's economy and attract global businesses to India. Twitter reactions ranged from congratulatory on the timely roll out of GST to concerns over how it would be implemented. Meanwhile industry bodies said they were "fully prepared" for implementation of the new indirect tax regime, which came into effect from midnight July 1.

Anand Mahidra, the Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra Group an avid tweeter, welcomed the GST rollout with words from Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech on the eve of India’s Independence.
 

"At the stroke of the midnight hour...India will awake" as a common market for the 1st time. To do the obvious is often the most difficult..

- anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 30, 2017

Vijay Shekhar the founder of Paytm hailed GST as the biggest reform of the country and congratulated Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley on the successful roll out.
 

Dawn of a new India!Congratulations @narendramodi , @arunjaitley and whole team behind GST. This is the biggest reform for our country.
#🇮🇳

- Vijay Shekhar (@vijayshekhar) July 1, 2017

Chanda Kochhar, CEO of ICICI Bank, India’s largest private bank, said that GST would enhance the ease of doing business in India and improve tax compliance in a statement on ICICI’s official twitter handle.

Ms. Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, shares her thoughts on the GST reform & its impact on the economy. pic.twitter.com/ZnNrYh4ZJk

- ICICI Bank (@ICICIBank) June 30, 2017

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII, an industry body, called the reforms unprecedented in model and scale and commended the efforts of the GST council members in a series of tweets.

Indian #GST is unprecedented in model, scale, & tech adaptation & will impart huge momentum to the economy ~@CB_CII. @PMOIndia@FinMinIndiapic.twitter.com/c0CT1KjH2R

- CII (@FollowCII) June 30, 2017

Shobana Kamineni, the Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group, tweeted a picture from the GST launch event terming it “India's second tryst with destiny”
 

So proud to witness India's second tryst with destiny - ushering a historic economic union. #GST@followCII@narendramodi@RBIpic.twitter.com/PBBmHUS5z7

- Shobana Kamineni (@shobanakamineni) July 1, 2017

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, called the launch a “proud moment” but expressed concern over the complex structure of GST.

GST is a transformational reform with a complex implementation path that will stifle its true potential. We must expedite simplification

— Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (@kiranshaw) July 1, 2017

The nationwide GST will overhaul India's convoluted indirect taxation system and unify the over $2 trillion economy with 1.3 billion people into a single market.