GST rates tweaked

New Delhi: The GST council on Friday announced major cuts in taxes of various items and announced various measures to support exporters and small businesses. "It's almost three months since GST roll out… returns have been filed for first two months as well.

So, it is a time to deliberate on its effect on various trades and the transition," Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a press briefing after the meeting of the GST Council.

Keeping in view of the liquidity problem being faced by the exporters, the Council has decided to immediately start refund process for the month of July by October 10 while exporters can get refund of August by October 18.

"As a long-term solution, an e-wallet will be created for every exporter where a notional amount will be given in advance...the refund will be offset later against that amount," Jaitley said. The e-wallet option will be launched by April 1, Jaitley added.

For small businesses, it has been decided to increase the limit of composition scheme to Rs 1 crore. So now the small business can now file returns on a quarterly basis. This, Jaitley said, has been done to increase compliance. Under this, restaurant businesses will pay GST at 5% rate, traders will pay 1%, while manufacturing composition will be 2%.

Jaitley also revealed that about 72 lakh taxpayers have been migrated to the GST system, while 25-26 lakh are new taxpayers under the new taxation system. He said that a majority of them have less than Rs 1 crore of turnover.

Cut in GST rates
The FM said that the GST Council has decided to revise tax of many items, including sliced mango (12 to 5%), khakra chapati (12 to 5%), ICDS food packages (5 from 18%), unbranded namkeen (5%), unbranded Ayurvedi medicine (12 to 5%), plastice waster (18 to 5%), rubber waste (18 to 5%), paper waste (5 from 12%), manmade yard (12%) etc.
In total, rates have been revised for 27 items. Service providers with revenue below Rs 20 lakh have been exempted from iGST as well.