GST Council Meeting-The Items on which the GST rates have been reduced & include


The third GST Council meeting since the implementation of Goods and Services Tax in India brought a spate of good news for exporters and small businesses, but also had something to offer to consumers as well, albeit less than what was widely expected. The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, reviewed the rate of tax under GST on as many as 27 goods and services, mostly lowering the tax on these items of common use. However, the number of items discussed for a review of rates in Friday’s meeting in New Delhi was far lower than the 60 items under review, on which the government was expected to cut taxes.


The council responded favourably to the the call by small businesses to lower the compliance burden by allowing them to file returns only once in a quarter instead of once every month as is required at present. Further, for exporters reeling under tight liquidity conditions due to tax refund claims aggregating to Rs 65,000 crore stuck with the government, the GST Council took steps to provide them relief by allowing pre-GST exemptions for them till March 2018. Instead, the council chose to focus on straightening out administrative and procedural difficulties in implementation of GST, which have brought the businesses of exporters and SMEs to near grinding halt, and make the reform smoother and simpler.
As for reducing the tax burden on consumers itself, here’s a list of the items on which the government cut rates today:

GST Council Meeting- major decisions taken today:

The items on which the GST rates have been reduced include:

1. Tax on Clothes reduced to 5% from 12%... a massive relief to Clothing industry.

2. 60 items tax reduced to 5% from 12%....a massive relief to Traders & Consumers both.

3. Restaurant Tax reduced to 12% from 18% GST... a big relief  to consumers.

4. Return to be field once in quarter not monthly basis... ..a massive relief to Businessmen.

5. Turnover for composition scheme raised from RS.75 Lakhs to RS. 1 crore..... a huge relief for traders.

6. E-way bill provisions deferred till April 2018... a breather for trades. :)

7. Reverse charge to be abolished till 31.03.2018...... another breather for traders.

8. Quarterly returns for taxpayers with annual turnover less than Rs1.5 crores. Tax to be paid on monthly basis......a good step indeed.

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