New Delhi [India], September 6 (ANI): Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi has lauded the recent GST reforms, saying that this will give a huge stimulus to the defence sector and help in enhancing the operational efficiency of the armed forces as they would be able to purchase more equipment.

Speaking to ANI on Friday, the Chief of Army Staff expressed gratitude to the Centre for bringing these reforms.

General Dwivedi said, 'I must thank the government for bringing these reforms. This will give us a major fillip as far as the defence corridors are concerned. MSMEs and start-ups will also get a major advantage. The Army looks at three things - defence modernisation, training and research and development. In research and development, the iDEX project and others, complete GST will be refunded. On simulators and others, there will be zero GST. For military UAVs, GST is zero. GST will be brought down to 5% on armoured units. In the budget we have, we will be able to purchase more. This will allow me to enhance operational efficiency.'

The 56th GST council meeting decided to rationalise GST rates to two slabs of 5 per cent and 18 per cent by merging the 12 per cent and 28 per cent rates.

Speaking on the integration of security forces, General Dwivedi stated that theaterisation is moving forward satisfactorily. He highlighted three important factors in conventional warfare for which there is a need for unity in command and decentralisation in execution.

Theaterisation refers to the integration of the army, air force, and navy capabilities to effectively utilise their resources during wars and operations.

He said, 'Theaterisation is moving satisfactorily. We need to understand that whenever we have conventional warfare, there are three things that are required: force visualisation, force protection and force application. For this, we need unity in command and decentralisation in execution...Theaterisation is the way ahead... What is most important is the degree of familiarisation. We have to be familiar with each other. The more we operate closely, the better we will be in terms of the application of our force.'

According to the Ministry of Defence, to modernise the Armed Forces, efforts are underway to restructure forces through the establishment of Integrated Theatre Commands (ITCs) and Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs). These reforms aim to optimise operational preparedness by unifying the Army, Navy, and Air Force capabilities based on geography and function. (ANI)