New Delhi, July 28: Union Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday that the country has witnessed mass tax reduction in the last one year since Independence enhancing the buying power of consumers.
In an article, Mr Jaitley said these lesser tax rates have resulted in higher collection of taxes.
On tax reduction under GST regime in last one year, Mr Jaitley said, ‘if the entire category of all the slabs is taken, the past one year has seen reduction of tax in 384 commodities with no increase on a single product.’
India has never witnessed such mass tax reduction since Independence. Lesser rates and higher collection is
the result.
He wrote, ‘Similarly in the services category, which has now become a part of the GST, on four different occasions 68 different categories of services have witnessed their rates reduced.’
According to Mr Jaitley, the net revenue loss which Government has suffered on account of the reduction of tax on goods and services is about Rs 70,000 crore. Since the state governments have been guaranteed a 14 per cent increase over their pre-GST revenues for the first five years, this burden has entirely been borne from the share of the Central government.
He wrote in his article that this tax reduction has reduced the cost to the consumers, increased his purchasing capacity and added to the increased consumption in the economy. All household items stand reduced from 28 per cent to 18 per cent and 12 per cent. All items of construction except cement stands reduced. Most white goods stand reduced.
