India: Good and Services Tax rates lowered on certain products

By APD Writer Rishika Chauhan

NEW DELHI, October 7 (APD) -- To assist small and medium businesses and exporters from the difficulties caused by the newly imposed goods and services tax (GST), the GST Council on Friday announced several changes in its rules.

Finance minister, Arun Jaitley who is heading the GST Council, informed that the tax rates on 27 products have been decreased.

Moreover, the council asked a panel of state ministers to assess if the 18% GST on air-conditioned restaurants could be decreased as well.

The Council decided to clear all tax refund claims of exporters for July by October 10 and for August by October 18.

A 0.1% GST rate for merchant exporters was introduced, to offer relief, as now the full applicable GST rates will not be imposed on the procured goods.

Talking about the recent developments, VK Agarwal, the former president of the Federation of Indian Small and Medium Enterprises said that, “the steps taken by the Council will provide urgent but temporary relief to small and medium businesses and exporters.”

Ganesh Kumar Gupta who is the president of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations said that, “the introduction of an e-wallet will provide a permanent solution to the liquidity problem of exporters. The early refund of GST for July and August will address the immediate liquidity concerns of exporters.”

Jaitley further said, “Big players pay the largest chunk of GST, while small taxpayers who pay nominal or nil tax face high compliance impact. We are relaxing their compliance burden.”

The small and medium business owners as well as the Indian exporters have received the news of new GST rules positively.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)