Sarbananda Sonowal

Chief Minister of Assam

Government of India

I, Sarbananda Sonowal, the chief minister of Assam come into this meet with
the hope of finding solutions to our problems, helping India’s economy,
building relations with our neighboring countries and bettering the citizenship
act.

We have had 18 percent growth in the collection of SGST in Assam and

refunds have been made on time. Earlier this year, Economic times reported
that: “I urge The Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman to release the
CGST and IGST refunds so that business community in Assam gets
encouragement to increase business activity.” Despite Assam being the first
state to ratify GST for the implementation of the Bill, my state is struggling to
get refunds due to the complicated process of GST Tax returns imposed by the
central government.

Some simple suggestions to help Assam:

 Hire more professionals to speed up the process
 Simplify the procedure of reimbursement

The Indo-Bangladesh border is used as a route for illegally transporting

livestock, food, medicines, and drugs to and from India. Even illegal immigrants
from Bangladesh cross the border to India. Due to a growing number of illegal
Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam in the year 2018 there was a border put in by
the government of Assam.

In 1951 due to Assam’s positioning and problems of illegal immigration Assam

had a register of citizens created for it. But it was sadly not maintained. The
illegal migrants act in 1983 was then passed by the Parliament, creating a
separate process for identifying illegal migrants in Assam. In 2005, The
Supreme court of India struck it down as unconstitutional, after which the
Government of India agreed to update the Assam NRC. While the first but
uncompleted NRC was published December 31, 2017, the second part was
published on June 30, 2018. Since the protests in 2016 on the Citizenship
Amendment Bill, I have said this before and I repeat, “We will not do anything
which is against the interest of Assam.”

Our country is a democracy, and every voice matters! I am optimistic that this
AIPPM session will see a productive end.
Sarbananda Sonowal
Chief Minister of Assam
Government of India

I aspire towards strengthening our country by finding solutions.

Sarbananda Sonowal
The Chief Minister of Assam

We have had 18 percent growth in the collection of SGST in Assam and refunds
have been made on time, although the CGST and the IGST hadn’t. Despite
Assam being the first state to ratify GST for the implementation of the Bill, my
state is struggling to get refunds due to the complicated process of GST Tax
returns imposed by the central government.

Bibliography-
 https://des.assam.gov.in/information-services/state-profile-of-
assam#:~:text=The%20State%20is%20endowed
%20with,2.6%20%25%20population%20of%20the%20country.
 https://www.prsindia.org/parliamenttrack/budgets/assam-budget-
analysis-2019-20
 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/18-per-
cent-growth-in-the-collection-of-state-gst-in-assam-sarbananda-
sonowal/articleshow/74342444.cms#:~:text=Guwahati%3A%20Assam
%20chief%20minister%2C%20Sarbananda,have%20been%20made
%20on%20time.&text=%22Whenever%20you%20come%20to
%20Assam,invest%20in%20South%20East%20Asia.
 https://www.sentinelassam.com/top-headlines/assam-first-state-in-
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 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/
sarbananda-sonowal-seeks-simpler-gst-reimbursement/articleshow/
61557557.cms
 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/indo-
bangladesh-border-will-be-sealed-by-december-sarbananda-sonowal/
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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Citizens