GST Meeting: The country’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, made a big announcement regarding GST on Wednesday. Regarding this, she said that the purpose of reform in GST is to provide relief to the common people, farmers, middle class, and small industries. She said this while addressing a group of ministers associated with the GST Council at Vigyan Bhavan. She said that the next generation GST reforms are an important step towards making India self-reliant. At the same time, Sitharaman also clarified that the central government wants to implement these reforms in consultation with the states. The Finance Ministry informed on the social media platform X that more steps will be taken in this direction in the coming weeks.
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It is necessary to simplify GST rates
The Finance Minister said that changes in GST are necessary so that the tax system can become simple and transparent. He said that the purpose of changing tax rates is to make life easier and create a better environment for business. The government wants the GST system to be made such that the country moves towards self-reliance.
Proposal for two tax slabs
However, there is a proposal to abolish the rates of 12% and 28% and keep only two main tax slabs – 5% and 18%. Along with this, there has been a demand to impose a special tax rate of 40% on certain items like pan masala, tobacco, and online gaming.
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New rates may be implemented from October 1
According to a research report by SBI, if these new rates are implemented, the government may suffer a revenue loss of about Rs 85,000 crore annually. In the current financial year, if these changes are implemented from October 1, that is, before Diwali, then there may be a revenue loss of about Rs 45,000 crore. PM Narendra Modi had also indicated on the occasion of Independence Day that some relief related to GST can be given before Diwali. In such a situation, it is expected that the government can soon implement new GST slabs.