GST Rate Changes To Be Considered Once A Year, Take Effect From April 1, Say Finance Ministry Sources

New Delhi, Oct 6: The GST Council will take up any proposal for tax rate changes only once a year and henceforth, all GST rate changes will be implemented from April 1 -- the beginning of a fiscal year, Finance Ministry sources said.

The GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, had in September last year decided to rationalise tax rates and slabs. A four-slab GST (5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent) was rejigged to a two-tier structure of 5 and 18 per cent.

No rate changes on agenda

Finance Ministry sources said tax rate changes are not on the agenda at the upcoming 57th GST Council meeting on October 8.

Sources said rate changes in future are to be taken up once a year and are to take effect from April 1. The forthcoming meeting will take up a limited set of issues for rationalisation and to remove ambiguity.

Clarity on e-commerce deliveries

Among other proposals to give clarity, the Council may approve that a single 5 per cent GST rate without input tax credit would be applicable for deliveries through e-commerce platforms.

"Stability is worth more to most businesses than any single concession," a source said, adding a stable rate structure allows contracts to be priced over their term and capital spending to be planned.

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Rationalisation boosts consumption

Sources said the rate structure reworked last year has been in place for about a year and has worked for consumers, industry, tax revenues and for the economy.

Last year's GST rate rationalisation has boosted consumption, and GST revenues have also grown over the year. The monthly revenues have grown in double digits since June this year.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)