GST Council is holding a meeting today for the 23rd time in Guwahati, Assam and it is being said that the council is likely to cut down the rates of 200 items that come under the higher slab category of 18% and 28%.
On Wednesday, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and a GST Council members, Sushil Modi in his statement to the press, had said that “out of 227 items falling in highest tax slab is likely to be reduced from 28 percent to 18 percent.” He had also informed that the GST fitment committee has also recommended that the council is also thinking of reducing the tax rates from 18 percent to 12 percent on a number of items.
Other than, the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also indicated that the tax rates will be slashed down and a number of items will be brought down from the 28 percent tax slab.
In his statement to the press, Jaitley admitted that some of the items in the 28 percent slab should have never been there. He further added that “We have been gradually bringing them down. The whole idea is, as your revenue collections neutralise we must prune it and that is the pattern in which the Council has so far been functioning. I see that as a future guide as far as the Council is concerned.”
According to the sources, it is being said that rates of certain common use items like handmade furniture, plastic products, shower baths, sinks, wash basins, bidets, lavatory pans, seats and covers, flushing cisterns and similar sanitary ware of plastics, sanitary ware, suitcase, wall paper, plywood, stationery articles, watch, play instruments, and daily use items like shampoo and cosmetics are likely to be brought down.
Other than bringing down the tax slabs on around 200 items, the council will also discuss about boosting the digital payments in India, by incentivising digital transactions for both customers and traders.
Since, the Modi government has been recently facing a lot of criticism, the government has also decided to take few more initiatives to ease the system of GST for the people. As per the Central government’s new guidelines, thousands of skill trainers who will help small businesses as well as individuals in fling returns.