Goods and Services Tax (GST) | (Photo: Shutterstock)
The ministerial panel on GST rate rationalisation will meet on September 25 and is expected to discuss adjustments in tax slabs and rates.
“The Malaysian government meeting on tariff rationalisation is scheduled to be held on September 25 in Goa,” an official told PTI.
The six-member Group of Ministers (GoM) under Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary last met on August 22 and submitted a status report to the GST Council on September 9.
During the August meeting, the panel had tasked the adjustment committee, comprising tax officials from the Centre and states, to analyse the implications of the change in tax rate on some items and collect more data.
Currently, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a four-tier tax structure with rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent.
Under GST, essential items are exempted or taxed at the lowest slab, while luxury and demerit items are subject to the highest slab. Luxury and sin items are subject to additional tax at the highest slab of 28 per cent.
There has been talk of merging the 12 percent and 18 percent tax brackets, but so far nothing has been proposed.
The average GST rate has fallen by around 12% below the revenue neutral rate of 15.3%. This has necessitated the initiation of discussions on rationalisation of the GST rate.
States like West Bengal and Karnataka were not in favour of changing the GST slabs as of now.
West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya had said after the Bengal government meeting in August: “I said there should be no change in the GST slab.”
Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said the Myanmar government needs to consider whether it needs to “disrupt” the GST system, which has now largely stabilised.
“What will be achieved by altering it? We have said that we will discuss it (reduction of slabs) in the next meeting,” Byre Gowda had said.
The six-member GoM also includes Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna, Rajasthan Health Services Minister Gajendra Singh and Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: September 22, 2024 | 16:33 IS
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.