The 28% GST slab is likely to become a ‘hollow shell’ by the end of next year hints the Chief Economic Advisor of India, Arvind Subramanian. About 191 goods fell under the 28% tax slab when the Goods and Service Tax (GST) was introduced in July 2017. AC, digital camera, video recorder, dishwashing machines, and automobiles fell under this category. However, now there are only 35 goods under the 28% GST slab.
‘I am very confident that over the next year so that 28 percent hopefully will be virtually a shell hollow shell,’ he said
The 28% GST slab initially faced criticism from many political parties. When questioned about this in an interview to the Rajya Sabha TV’s ‘To The Point’ program Mr.Subramanian explained that the Council was ‘really whittling down…quite substantially’ the number of products in the slab.
Hints in the past
Sushil Modi hinted a possibility of cutting down the tax slabs from 5 to 3. ’There is an intention to reduce it to three slabs but it will take some time’, he said in an interview to PTI Bhasha.
GST Council consist of finance ministers from all the states and is headed by the Union Finance Minister. Quite recently, in the 28th GST meeting in New Delhi, sanitary napkins were exempted from GST. The Council now looks forth towards simplifying the burden on small and medium enterprises (SME).
Arvind Subramanian who joined the Finance Ministry in October 2014, will be leaving on July 30.