GST Council to review tax rates and digital payments

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Nov 9, 2017

On Friday November 10, the GST Council will meet to announce how they will boost new digital payments and may also cut GST on some highly taxed items.

Narendra Modi’s government has consistently been pro-digital payments and it is expected that, when the GST Council meets on Friday, they will decide on new measures to boost the medium. Some believe that Goods and Services Tax (GST) incentives may be given on digitally made payments although this has not yet been confirmed. This would incentivise digital payments for both consumers and merchants, something the government aims to do. Although digital payments have been on the rise in India since demonetisation this time last year, the government still feels that they could be higher and so they will roll out some form of incentive to achieve this.

Items that are currently taxed at 28 percent under that GST will also be addressed and the tax rate may be cut for many items in this category in order to ease the strain on merchants. Items in the highest GST category of 28 percent tax include high end consumer goods, cars, cosmetics, and watches. These items could be moved down to the 18 percent tax bracket where most consumer goods reside. There have been many complaints from businesses and merchants regarding the 28 percent tax bracket as many items in that category experienced a sharp tax increase which left merchants with far lower profits at a time when customers were also spending less.