mumbai nov 11 finance minister arun jaitley sunday hit out at the critics and cynics who blame gst for growth deceleration saying the indirect tax reform had only a transient impact on growth and that too for two quarters in remarks apparently aimed at former reserve bank governor raghuram rajan who friday blamed the goods and services tax rollout along with demonetisation for lower gdp growth jaitley said the economy recovered fast from the limited disruptionist impact of the tax reform but the minister was silent on rajans criticism of the noteban which has disrupted everyones life in general and that of small traders and small businesses in particular though the stated objectives of the move was to curb blackmoney and choke the channels pumping in fake notes into the economy the rbi in july had stated that as much as 993 per cent of the cancelled notes had come back to the system and also cash in circulation had topped the prenoteban days interestingly the government did not celebrate the second anniversary of the controversial decision on november 8 unlike the first anniversary when it had listed out the benefits of the move as increased tax payers base and higher digital transactions claiming that gst had a smooth implementation jaitley without naming anyone said you will always have critics and cynics who will come up and say it slowed down growth jaitley who was addressing the centenary celebrations of the staterun union bank of india through a video message described gst as a monumental reform that impacted growth for just two quarters as gdp numbers since then climbed up to 7 77 and 82 per cent in the subsequent quarters he was also quick to point out that these numbers are much higher compared to 56 per cent achieved between 2012 and 2014 under the previous government the minister said ever since the narendra modi government assumed office the country has been able to retain its position as the fastest growing major economy delivering a lecture in the us friday evening rajan whose threeyear stint at the rbi ended in september 2016 two months before demonetisation and almost a year before gst implementation in july 2017 had termed the twin moves as hard blows to the economy when global growth was much better thus the country losing out from the rest of the world the two successive shocks of demonetisation and gst had serious impacts on growth which has fallen off interestingly at a time when the global economy was picking up fast rajan had said the reality is that seven 7 per cent growth is not enough for the kind of people coming into the labour market and we need jobs for them so we need more and cannot be satisfied at this level of growth rajan had added jaitley said reforms including gst demonetisation and the muchcontested aadhaar have ensured greater formalisation of the economy and made available extra resources which are now being