GST rate cut: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government is very close to taking a final decision on some very important issues like rate cuts, rationalisation, considering the number of slabs and others.
GST rate cut: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that GST rates will be further reduced and the process of rationalising tax rates and slabs has almost reached the final stage. She highlighted that the Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) has decreased from 15.8 per cent at the time of GST’s launch on July 1, 2017, to 11.4 per cent in 2023.
“It will come down even further down,” the minister added.
The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Sitharaman and including state finance ministers, established a Group of Ministers (GoM) in September 2021 to rationalize GST rates and propose changes in tax slabs. The GoM consists of finance ministers from six states and is responsible for reviewing and recommending reforms to simplify the GST structure.
Sitharaman on GST rate cut
Responding to a question at ‘The Economic Times Awards’ on whether it is time to rationalise GST rates and slabs, Sitharaman said “that work has almost reached a finale”.
“Now, at this stage, there is one more look that I would (take) the groups (GoM) have done excellent work, but I still have taken it upon myself to, once more, completely review each of the groups’ works, and then probably take it to take it to the Council to see if we can come to a final conclusion on this,” she said.
‘Very close to coming to a final call’
Sitharaman said that some more work is needed on GST rate rationalisation before finalising the changes. “We’ll take it to the next council (meeting). We are very close to coming to a final call on some of the very critical issues, reduction, rationalisation of rates, looking at the number of slabs and so on,” she said.
To a question on the reasons for stock market volatility and how the path towards more calm markets playing out, Sitharaman said, “It is like asking will the world be calm, will the wars come to an end, will the Red Sea be safer, will there be no sea pirates. Can I comment on it or any of you can comment”.
On public sector banks’ stake dilution, Sitharaman said the government is committed to increasing the public float. “We want to have more retail investors in public sector banks,” she said.
(With PTI inputs)
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