At the 17th Lok Sabha session on Monday, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur informed that the GST (goods and service tax) council will consider reducing taxes on electric vehicles and the matter is pending before it. This was said in response to a question asked by BJP member Varun Gandhi during the Question Hour.

The government has been looking at ways to promote the use of electric vehicles, which are considered as more environmental friendly.

"The matter has been placed before the GST Council and will be considered. As of now, it is pending before the council," he said.

Talking about the new tax system, Thakur said that the number of tax filers in the country have doubled under the GST regime, indicating people's trust in the system.

He said that over 21 lakh returns were filed in a single day in May, indicating that the new tax regime has become better with time after initial glitches and has stabilised. The minister also said that the April-May tax collection this year had increased by over 8.5 percent compared to the corresponding period last year.

Further, Thakur also submitted a written reply to a question asked about tax collections.

The total direct tax in 2018-19 was Rs 11,37,685 crore as against 10,02,037 in 2017-18, he said, adding that the direct tax-GDP ratio has risen to 5.98 percent from 5.86 percent.

The GST collection in 2018-19 was Rs 5,81,563 as against Rs 4,42,561 crore in 2017-18. The total non-GST indirect tax collection was Rs 3,55,906 crore in the last fiscal compared to Rs 4,69,092 crore in the year before that.