Scope for lowering GST slabs, hints FM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 1

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said there was scope for lowering the slabs under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), provided revenue collections were robust. “We are in the first 2-3 months (of GST implementation). We have almost by the day, space and scope for improvement. We have space for improvement and need for improvement to reduce compliance burden as far as small taxpayers are concerned. Once we become revenue neutral, we will think in terms of bigger reforms, such as lesser slabs...,” he said at an event organised by the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN).

(Follow ; and )

Jaitley said society was undergoing transformation and that was why the government had made taxation an easier process to increase compliance. “Indirect tax structure is in a transformational phase and will impact the growing economy.”

Stressing that indirect tax burden was borne by all sections, the Finance Minister said it had always been the government’s endeavour to bring down tax rates on mass consumption commodities. 

“Direct tax is paid by more by the more affluent, somewhat by the others and certainly not by weaker sections, but the impact of indirect tax places burden on all. “Therefore, an effort is always as part of the fiscal policy... to ensure that the commodities consumed more by the common people are least taxed,” the Finance Minister explained. 

Noting that India had conventionally been a tax non-compliant society, he said when people had the right to demand development, they also had the responsibility to pay what was required for development.

Addressing the 67th batch of Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers, he observed that revenue was the lifeline of governance and all developmental activities. “You don’t have to extort taxes from those who are not liable to pay...as tax people, you are not entitled to invite fear, you have to invite respect that you are somebody who (wants) people to comply with national duty.” 

Pointng out that there were never grey areas in taxation law, he said it was the duty of tax officers to be firm and fair. 

Currently, the GST regime slots items under rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. An additional compensation cess too is levied on certain products.

Sinha: We have lost Kashmir emotionally

New Delhi: Having assailed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the “mess” in economy, BJP veteran leader Yashwant Sinha has attacked the government on the Kashmir imbroglio, insisting “India has lost people of the valley emotionally”. In an interview to ‘The Wire’, the former Union Minister said: “I am looking at the alienation of the masses of people in J&K . That bothers me most… We have lost the people emotionally…” PTI