GST implementation has put the BJP government on the edge of a knife. To fight against the allegations being showered by the opposition party, BJP government is trying to resolve the issues related to GST. In a statement of Hasmukh Adhia, he said to revise the GST structure for better compliance and the statement is also being watched as insinuating speech to gain people’s favor.
The criticism against the GST can be heard at political levels. There is also the possibility that we will see new changes in GST structure which can make GST easy for not only the common man but also for the traders. It is expected that in the next GST council meeting, which is going to be held on November 10, the GST council may relieve the traders and common man by lowering the GST rates on some goods and for the restaurants.
Considering the current situation, it is hard to set the single or double GST rate. As per the sources of Finance ministry, the current rates under GST are kept intentionally keeping in mind the social and economic conditions of India. If the GST Council put the single GST rate of 18% or the double GST rate of 18% and 12%, it will be going to burden the economically weaker section of society and will make the rich people richer.
The government understands the issues being faced by businesses in complying with the GST rates. The GST council is also looking for the possibilities to smooth the procedure from return filing to refunding the input tax credit to taxpayers.
In the last meeting of GST council, an approach paper is accepted by the council which describes the base to decide the GST rates in upcoming times. It was also mentioned that the new rate reform will take place considering the single or the double rates. In between, an assumption started prevailing that there could be a single rate in revision under GST regime.
The biggest argument on GST being single rated is that it will make the compliance smoother. Considering the examples of other countries, it also shows that the countries adopted GST structure has only a single rate for compliance. Opposition parties are also demanding the single rate compliance under GST regime. The people favoring the single rate concept believe that it will be easy to file GST returns for small businesses like a grocery store owner. The second argument is that if the single rate is 18%, then it will neutralize the revenue and won’t affect the revenue of state and central government. The recommendation of single rate 18% is given by the committee headed by Arvind Subramaniam.
