New Delhi: Presenting the Budget 2019-20, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the government wants the GST burden on home buyers to be reduced and accordingly we have moved the GST Council to appoint a Group of Ministers to examine and make recommendations in this regard at the earliest.
The Finance Minister asserted that in spite of such major rate reductions and relaxations, revenue trends are encouraging. He said, “The average monthly tax collection in the current year is Rs. 97,100 crore per month as compared to Rs. 89,700 crore per month in the first year. The State revenues are improving with guaranteed 14 percent annual revenue increase for the first five years.”
Goyal said, “The Goods and Services Tax (GST) reforms lingered on during the previous Government for almost a decade. Our Government implemented the GST, which is undoubtedly the biggest taxation reform undertaken since Independence.”
He added, the GST Council, comprising the Centre and States/UTs, finalised the GST rates collectively mostly lower than pre-GST rates. Since then, GST has been continuously reduced providing relief of about Rs 80,000 crore annually to consumers.
Most items of daily use of the poor and middle class are now in the 0 percent or 5 percent tax slab. Cinema goers who were subjected to multiple taxes up to 50 percent are mostly paying much lower tax at 12 percent now, Goyal added.
