look news india
It is believed that the Group of Ministers (GoM), which is reviewing the GST rates, is in favor of reducing the tax rate on many items including educational materials from 12 percent to five percent to provide relief to the public.
A meeting of the Group of Ministers was held in Goa on Wednesday. It is believed that the meeting also agreed to a proposal to increase rates on several textile and apparel items above the Rs 1,000 limit from five per cent to 12 per cent or 18 per cent. These measures are expected to help achieve revenue neutrality by increasing the average GST rate. Of course, there was no discussion in this meeting on the issue of reducing tax on health insurance or exempting it from the purview of GST, which is currently being hotly debated. The next meeting of GOM will be held on October 19 and October 20. In which the possibility of discussion on health insurance has been expressed. The issue which was left out of discussion in Wednesday's meeting can also be discussed in the next meeting.
The GoM will submit a detailed report to the GST Council with suggestions for amendments on GST rates after the October meetings. At the time of GST implementation, the revenue neutral rate (RNR) was fixed at 15.5 percent. But since the introduction of the indirect tax system, the weighted average GST rate has come down to below 11 per cent due to reduction in tax rates on a large number of items. Which was implemented from July 2017. It is noteworthy that earlier the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had said that currently four slabs of GST are in force. Currently, various goods and services are taxed at the rates of five percent, 12 percent, 18 percent and 28 percent. Then there is a strong possibility that these four slabs of GST will be reduced to three slabs.
Research into tax slabs
Proposal to reduce GST rate on education material from 12 percent to 5 percent
A proposal to increase rates on several textile and apparel items above the Rs 1,000 limit from five per cent to 12 per cent or 18 per cent has also been agreed upon.
The Group of Ministers will submit a report on rate rationalization to the GST Council after its meeting in October.
At present, there is a strong demand to implement three slabs of GST instead of four.