No rationalisation of GST structure for now: Revenue Secretary

New Delhi, February 9, 2023 

Focus, for now, will be on rationalising anomalous rates and inverted duty structures of specific products and services, he says

The long-awaited rationalisation of the multiple rate structure of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is off the table for now and unlikely to materialise in the near future, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra indicated.

While a group of ministers of the GST Council is tasked with proposing a new rate structure, the focus, for now, will be on rationalising anomalous rates and inverted duty structures of specific products and services.

“On GST, our major work is done. There is no move as of now to further reduce the number of tax rates and merge some. There is no such move,” Mr. Malhotra told The Hindu. “A little bit of tinkering, removal of a particular commodity or service from one slab to another… in that also, we have attained maturity. Smaller changes and rationalisations are the only one we will be looking at… If there are any anomalies, they will be fixed,” he said.

The government, he underlined, is not in favour of changing the capital gains tax regime too frequently, and only capped the capital gains provisions relating to purchase of property at ₹10 crore “for better targeting” as it was meant to be a boost for the housing sector and help smaller taxpayers, not the bigger assessees.

Raman Chopra, Joint Secretary (TPL) in the Finance Ministry, explained that investments in houses worth ₹10 crore or more are prevalent mostly in metros and less than 2% of taxpayers can afford such houses.

“We came across several instances of capital gains of over ₹200 crore being parked in residential farmhouses. ₹ 10 crore is a fairly reasonable limit,” he said at a PHDCCI event on Thursday.

[The Hindu]