DELHI: NIRMALA SITHARAMAN (UNION FINANCE MINISTER), PIYUSH GOYAL (UNION MINISTER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY) & ASHWINI VAISHNAW (UNION MINISTER) JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE Delhi: When asked whether GST reforms have been made in response to the tariff war, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says, "This has been in the works for one and a half years. Who had thought of any tariff war at that time? and several groups of ministers were working on this for one and a half years. and several groups of these GOMs met again, post the government of India''s package, which was sent to the GST council which was sent to the group of ministers. So these are discussed at various levels at various times. So nowhere close to the tariff war. This had to happen. This was waiting to happen for quite some time. It has happened now..." Delhi: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says, "The second semiconductor plant started production last week... During the GST reform, many estimates were made about how consumption would increase, how demand would grow in the country. If we look at our GDP numbers from last year, it was Rs 335 lakh crore. Of that, our consumption accounted for Rs 202 lakh crore. and investment accounted for Rs 98 lakh crore... But because of the GST reforms, consumption will be significantly increasing, and it's very likely that consumption will increase more than 10 per cent this year, which means there is a strong possibility of extra consumption of around Rs 20 lakh crore..."