India and the US on Monday discussed the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime (expected from April 2017) on the eve of the second Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (S&CD).

Jailtey also urged American companies to invest in the National Infrastructure Invest Fund (NIIF) in which various US based insurance and pension funds, endowment funds can invest especially in infrastructure sector, which has great potential in India.

During a meeting between US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Monday Jaitley apprised Pritzker of the Constitution Amendment Bill relating to GST that has been approved by both the Houses of Parliament in the Monsoon Session.

He said eight States have already ratified the Constitution Amendment Bill for enabling GST regime and hoped that the remaining States will follow suit. The government is hopeful of getting the required number of ratifications by early next month.

The US Secretary of Commerce welcomed this development and hoped that this will boost the country’s economy. She suggested that the trade dialogue by the State Chief Ministers with different US authorities can be given a structured shape in order to give impetus to the bilateral trade.

“She expressed hope that there is great potential to increase the bilateral trade among the two nations. She said that US wants to institutionalise the trade relations between the two countries to give it impetus,” stated a release by the Ministry of Finance.

Bilateral trade between both sides have reached $110 billion in goods and services in 2015. The target is to achieve $500 billion bilateral trade.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW