Govt to further simplify GST process, says finance minister Sitharaman
New Delhi, July 1 (UNI): Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday the government is committed to further simplifying the Goods and Services Tax filing process.
"We are committed to greater simplification of the process," she said in a tweet as the GST regime entered its third year.
The indirect tax regime, which subsumed 17 local levies, was launched on July 1, 2017 in a grand ceremony held in the Central Hall of Parliament on the midnight of June 30.
A new return system on trial basis was being introduced from Monday. It will come into force from October 1 this year on a mandatory basis.
The finance ministry has also proposed to introduce Sahaj and Sugam returns for small taxpayers for the current fiscal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet described the GST as a "major reform" that fulfilled the dream of One Nation, One Tax. and said its introduction remained a "great example of cooperative federalism".
He congratulated all those who made it possible and constantly took feedback to make it more people-friendly.
During the GST Council meeting last month, Sitharaman had said that GST Council has much work to do including simplification of GST rules, rationalisation of GST rates and bringing more items in the ambit of GST.
Her predecessor Arun Jaitley earlier in the day in a Facebook post said the 12 and 18 per cent tax slabs in the GST could be merged going forward as revenues increase, thereby effectively making it a two-tier tax.
"Except on luxury and sin goods, the 28 per cent slab has almost been phased out. Zero and 5 per cent slabs will always remain. As revenue increases further, it will give an opportunity to policy makers to possibly merge the 12 per cent and 18 or cent slab into one rate, thus, effectively making the GST a two rate tax," he said.
Jaitley said as many as 20 states are already showing more than a 14 per cent increase in their revenues and do not require the centre to compensate them for revenue loss arising out of GST implementation.
The GST, the government says, has helped curb evasion, including by way of mandatory generation of e-way bill for transporting goods over Rs 50,000.
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