Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said GST introduction will increase the assessee base in the first twenty-one months of its implementation by almost eighty percent.

"No taxes have been increased. In fact, after 67 years of increase, tax rates have moved downwards. In a bold step, spread over five years, the income up to Rs 5 lakh has been exempt from income-tax. Even deductions available to the taxpayers have been raised to encourage and incentivise savings," Jaitley said.

The number of assesses filing returns with reduced tax rates in income-tax has risen close to double in the five year period, he said.

The GST will increase the assessee base in the first twenty-one months of its implementation by almost eighty percent, he added.

Jaitley highlighted many steps that the present government has taken in taxation reforms, to curb black money, enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, demonetisation, steps to check inflation, promoting cooperative federalism, Ayushman Bharat scheme, social sector investment and infrastructure development. These, he said, were game-changing decisions.

The first NDA Government took key decisions on infrastructure creation and prudent fiscal management. Bold policies on telecom and national highways made significant impact on the economy, he said.

Jaitley said the economy expanded at a rate faster than any other country in the world. "Our revenues went up and we ensured that the benefit of prosperity and the first right to the exchequer go to the poor. It will be our endeavour to maintain this direction in future also".

Launching an attck on the UPA government, he said between 2004-2014, the UPA got stuck into slogans rather than economic expansion.

They created 'rights' without a major increase in resources being provided to implement those rights.

"The Government got mired in corruption and wasted its tenure in a coverup exercise. Prime Minister Modi's Government was elected when India was already a part of the 'Fragile Five' and the world was predicting that India's 'I' will be knocked off from the aBRICS'. The Government had no options. It was committed to reforms. 'Reform or Perish' that was the challenge before the Indian economy," he added.