GST Council May Reduce Tax Rates If High Collections Continue

If the GST collection continues to be high over the next months, the GST Council might consider lowering tax rates on some of the commonly used items said one of the officials. The collections from the first month soon after the implementation of GST have been stupendous and if the trend continues until December, there will be enough room for the Council to reduce rate.

The official said that the tax reduction could be either on common usage items or a headline rate cut shall be effected for benefiting consumers. Once the trend is more apparent, the Council headed by Arun Jaitley shall look into the matter, further stating that the case shall be clear from November tax collection.

The exchequer collected a handsome amount of Rs 92,283 crore in the first month itself after GST came into effect on July 1 from merely 64.42% of the total taxpayers. Of the total tax collection under GST, Rs 47,469 crore has come in as IGST, Rs 14,894 crore from CGST, Rs 22,722 crore from SGST and Rs 7,198 crore from compensation cess charged on luxury and demerit items.

The actual tax collection exceeded the estimates of finance ministry which stood at Rs. 91000 crore.

The collections are expected to rise further as all the taxpayers registered under the new regime file returns and clear outstanding tax dues.

With Inputs from PTI