January 18, 2018: Goods and Services Tax Council has reduced the tax rate on 29 goods and 53 categories of services by bringing them in the lower category. New rate will be effective from 25th of this month.
Briefing media after the council meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said it was also decided to simplify the return filing process by merging all three types of GST returns into a single return. He said simplification of return filing process was discussed in the meeting and Nandan Nilekani gave a detailed presentation on it. He said collection under the composition scheme is a matter of concern and the Council discussed it seriously.
Mr. Jaitley said there seems to be cases of under declaration under the scheme. The Minister said it was decided to divide 35 thousand crore rupees IGST provisionally between the Centre and states instead of allowing it to be blocked.
On a question about inclusion of petroleum products in the GST, the Minister said the matter will be taken up in the next meeting of the council. (AIR News)
