Hours before the new two-slab Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is about to be rolled out at midnight on Sunday (September 21, 2025), Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed it a “bachat utsav”, a festival of savings, and the first step towards “aatmanirbharta” or economic self-reliance for Indians.
In a televised broadcast to the nation, Mr. Modi drew connections between the simplification of the GST regime from a four-slab to two-slab system, ease in compliance, and the reduction in prices resulting from it to a larger point about the need for Indians to weed out foreign-made products from their everyday life, and adopt products made in India, boosting the country’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
