Rough edges in indirect tax regime likely to be ironed out in next 2-3 years: Revenue Secretary
A few days after the GST Council meeting, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj has said that there is scope for further pruning of the GST exemption list. He is also hoping that the rough edges in the indirect tax regime will be ironed out in the next 2-3 years.
Tarun Bajaj further underlined multiple factors like increased economic activity post-Covid and better compliance which were responsible for the rise in GST collection. He noted that in the 47th GST Council meeting a lot of exemptions have been taken away but exemptions still remain. Work needs to be done on that.
On the services side, he said ‘we still have a large number of exemptions. The CBIC, GST Council, in collaboration with the trade and industry, will continue to work on that if we can prune this list of exemptions.' Bajaj also added that there would be some categories, like healthcare, on which exemptions would have to be continued.
Besides, Revenue Secretary said that there was good buoyancy in GST revenue last fiscal and the GST Council, comprising finance ministers from the Centre and states, is cautious not to burden the common man with increased rates.
