more-in Calling 2017 a year of “economic reforms”, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal on Thursday asked bankers to conduct more workshops to educate and encourage people to transact the digital way. He was speaking at a workshop on the latest Central schemes, held at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management here. The Minister called the merging of the railway and general budgets, the passing of Finance Bill, 2017 in March itself paving the way for the implementation of the Budget proposals from April 1, doing away with plan and non-plan expenditure heads in the budget, and deciding to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July as the major reforms. He said the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of the country would hit 10%, but did not venture to predict when this would happen. Many had predicted the GDP would fall after demonetisation, but instead it has gone up, he added. The Minister also said digital transactions have gone up since demonetisation, with Karnataka leading the way. Stating that digital transactions would curb the shadow economy, he said it would boost consumption, investment and export. “It will not hit cash transactions, and cash will remain in circulation,” he said. Some beneficiaries of latest Union government schemes such as Mudra and Stand-Up India were given loan sanction certificates on the occasion. Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, asked youth to come forward to make use of Start-Up India and other schemes.

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