GST Council Meet: Govt should commit to converge four tax rates into 1 or 2, says CII

As the GST Council begins its two-day fourth meeting on tax rates in New Delhi on Thursday, industry body CII has said that the government should commit to converge the four tax rates into one or two rates. 

"The GST should begin with an absolute limit of four rates as suggested by the government, and over time, the government should commit to converging these four rates to one or two rates," Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) director general Chandrajit Banerjee, said in a press release on Wednesday.

The GST Council will kick start its two-day fourth meeting on tax rates in New Delhi on Thursday. The meeting will include discussion on the levy of cess and sort out the vexed issue of jurisdiction over assessees, PTI reported on Wednesday. 

GST Council, which was formed in September, is chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and includes state ministers as its members. 

At the meeting, the Centre is likely to press its proposal for four-tier tax structure of 8%,12%, 18% and 26%, the peak rate being for FMCG and consumer durables, cited the PTI news report on Wednesday. 

"It is also important that the bulk of goods and services should fall within the standard rate of 18% and only as exception to go to the higher rate of 26%. It is suggested that the higher rate of 26% should apply only to ‘demerit goods’ and the term 'Luxury' goods should not be used to define this category," cited Banerjee in a statement.

On the cess, the  industry body has asked the government to keep the levy only on final products. 

"The cess needs to be levied only at the final product and total tax including cess on demerit goods should be kept within the present overall indirect tax incidence," he said in a statement.