Jammu: The rates of interest and tax will soon come down mainly due to the demonetisation drive of the government, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal has said.

“Interest rates and tax rates will soon decrease (after the demonetisation step)”, Meghwal said.

The minister was speaking at a conference of Laghu Udhyog Bharti, in which industrialists of Jammu region participated to discuss issue of GST regime and future of small-scale industry in the region. The minister also hit out at the opposition for disrupting Parliament proceedings over demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes. “Government is ready to discuss the issue in Parliament but opposition is behind all this. First opposition demanded debate in Parliament … We started discussion on November 16. It started in Rajya Sabha”, he told reporters here. “But contrary to it, Opposition said that the debate in Lok Sabha should be held as per rule and we told them you started debate in Rajya Sabha so commence it in Lok Sabha too,” he said, adding after a day-long debate they told us the Prime Minister should come to house. “When PM came to house, after a brief discussion when Dr Manmohan Singh spoke on it, they demanded PM should sit in the house, otherwise there would be no debate. When he sat in the house, they demanded he should apologise … who is stalling the proceedings of the houses. It is the opposition,” he said. “By next week there would be solution to be taken out by the Speaker of Lok Sabha and the Chairman of Rajya Sabha”, he said. On GST implementation, he hoped that J&K would implement the GST with passage of the bill in the Legislature. “We will develop a consensus over GST as a few states are opposing it,” he said. — PTI