New Delhi, Jan 3 (KNN) Dismissing the possibility of coming up with a single GST tax slab in the country, Finance Ministry cleared that the provision is not practical for implementation.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during a discussion in Rajya Sabha said that the single GST slab is not practical for a country like India.

Elaborating further, the finance minister said that India being diverse with a fair share of the population living below the poverty line, implementation of a unified single GST rate is not in best interest of the masses.

Jaitley further said that items such as food products will continue to face low minimum tax slab whereas luxury items are to continue higher tax rate.

Explaining reasons, he said only the countries that had their entire population above the poverty line, they are the ones that could implement single rate.

However the tax slabs and placement of items is not the final word and process of rationalization is to continue, Jaitley informed.

The Goods and Services tax was implemented in the country on July 1, following which there have been several amendments into the tax law, including the revision of items under different tax slabs.

At present the Indian GST mechanism has five major slabs including 0 per cent, 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent. (KNN/ DA)