The Finance Ministry has said GST has reduced the rate at which people have to pay tax, has helped increase compliance, and doubled taxpayer base to 1.24 crore.
On the first death anniversary of former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the ministry said before goods and services tax (GST), the combination of value-added tax (VAT), excise, sales tax and their cascading effect resulted in high standard rate of tax up to 31 per cent.
Here we look at example how GST has significantly reduced tax on household goods.
Many common goods of daily consumption or use such rice, floour, milk, children’s books come under zero tax bracket. The ministry said it is now widely acknowledged that GST is both consumer and taxpayer-friendly.
While the high tax rates of the pre-GST era acted as a disincentive to paying tax, the lower rates under GST helped to increase tax compliance.
All processes in GST have been fully automated. Till now 50 crore returns have been filed online and 131 crore e-way bill generated.