GST slabs to
be unveiled in 15 days, says Dasgupta
The goods and services tax (GST) will have four slabs,
and they are likely to be unveiled within 15 days, chairman of empowered
committee of state finance ministers and West Bengal’s finance minister Asim
Dasgupta said on Sunday.
“It (GST) will have four slabs. I hope the rates will be
released in the next 15 days,” Dasgupta said.
GST will have a zero slab for exempted items, a standard
rate for majority of the goods and services, and another
“moderate” rate, according to Dasgupta.
Precious metals are likely to continue to attract 1%
tax. This has to be done to bring uniformity in tax
compliance for the business community and to facilitate
it to maintain only a single book of accounts for both
state GST and Central GST tax payment, Dasgupta said.
The implementation of GST is scheduled for 1 April.
However, there are doubts in various quarters whether
the new tax regime would come into effect on the
targeted date because of differences of opinion over the
rates and the items to be included under GST.
The empowered committee of state finance ministers had
released a discussion paper on GST on 10 November.
It proposes to replace Central levies such as excise
duty, service tax, special additional duty and
countervailing duty with GST.
