New Delhi, May 23 (KNN) With a little more than a month remaining for the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country, the GST council has indicated that under the new tax regime there is huge scope for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to grow further. Arun Goyal, Additional Secretary of the GST council in a lecture at India International Center made these remarks.

He further informed that over a period of time, the GST council is looking towards reducing the number of tax slabs. Currently under the GST bill, there is 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent tax slab; this might be reduced to 1 or 2 tax slabs.

Also the economic experts have been discussing on the multiplicity of tax slabs under the GST. There have been proposals of reducing the tax slabs right from the roll out. Responding to which Goyal said that at present it was not feasible to reduce the tax slabs under the initial roll out of the GST because of the wide array of goods and services under the tax net.

Highlighting the positives of the new tax policy Goyal said that the GST is ‘Self-Regulatory’ and it is not possible for someone to evade taxes under the new tax regime. He further said that the new tax intends to tackle the problem of tax terrorism, also it will be an important step to end tax corruption in the country.

16 states in the country have passed the State GST bills in their respective state assemblies, and within next 20 days, the GST council is expecting that the remaining states and union territories will pass the bill too.

Goyal also informed that the officials from the Department of Revenue and other state government officials are conducting outreach programs to equip the traders, businesses and other stakeholders with the appropriate information regarding the One Nation One Tax regime. (KNN/ DA)