quite different from the planning commission when you would frequently see chief ministers waiting in the corridors of the yojana bhawan to lobby the deputy chairman for funds for this or that project we do occasionally have chief ministers visit us but that is for consultation a reflection of the changed relationship is that for the first time in our history the prime minister sought the advice of chief ministers in three major areas and appointed three subgroups of chief ministers rather than take a top down approach he took a bottoms up approach and invited the cms to help formulate the central government policies the result was three excellent reports on the centrally sponsored schemes skill development and swacch bharat have some states approached the niti aayog regarding the impact of the 7th pay commission when i was with the cm of rajasthan this past week she certainly said that this would add to the fiscal burdens of the state at a time when the past inheritance had already left the state finances in a fragile condition will you be doing any exercise to ensure that the burden on the states is minimised we will certainly have to find ways one way is to broaden the tax revenue base in the next budget so that states also receive larger volume of resource through devolution is there a scope for reducing personal income tax rates discussions on what measures the next budget must take will begin soon the matter may be taken up at that stage there is an argument that you are starting with a flawed gst model which will only deteriorate in the years what are your views i think on the whole where we are heading is a big improvement the immediate form in which the gst is implemented may not be ideal but given that gst has been in discussion for so long personally i would like to see this implemented in some form for now we cannot afford an impasse forever you are absolutely right that there is a danger of exemptions to expand rather than decrease thats where we would need to be careful how do you view this band of rates from 12 to 40 that has been proposed for gst largely we will remain under 18 from an economic standpoint you would agree that when major externalities such as urban pollution from petrol and diesel exist higher taxes on these fuels are fully justified in a similar vein in the case of some merit goods such as food lower tax rates are justified but the proposal to tax beverages at 40 has attracted criticism with coca cola saying they will shut down their plants if i may respond in lighter vein in that case we will all drink chhach lassi and nimboo pani which will be for the better from the viewpoint of health but more seriously while we must be judicious in our policy choices and make every effort to be