The suggestion is to come up with a standard rate of 17%, a lower merit rate for items of common consumption and a higher rate on luxury and sin goods, according to these officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC) has suggested the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council to simplify tax rates by creating just three slabs, two officials with direct knowledge of the matter said on Sunday.
The suggestion is to come up with a standard rate of 17%, a lower merit rate for items of common consumption and a higher rate on luxury and sin goods, according to these officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
At present, the regime, billed as a game-changer by the government, has four rates (5%, 12%, 18% and 28%).
Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on December 7, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, too, put forth a similar view.
“Eventually, we will of course have to rationalise [the rates]. Do we want so many slabs? Do we want to have just two or three slabs? Original intent was that we have just the three —merit, sin and the standard; just the three rates,” she said.
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