Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Chairman Bibek Debroy on Tuesday said the government was losing revenue due to the GST, which should be revenue neutral with a single rate.
Speaking at an event organised by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce here, he however said that GST has led to a lot of simplification.
“The ideal GST is one that has a single rate, and it was meant to be revenue neutral. When it was introduced, there were some calculations by the Ministry of Finance then that said, in order to be revenue neutral, the average GST rate must be at least 17 per cent.
“The average rate now is 11.4 per cent. So because of GST, the government is losing revenue,” the eminent economist said.
Bibek Debroy said the public as well as members of the GST Council want the 28 per cent tax rate to come down, but “no one wants the 0 per cent and 3 per cent tax rates to go up”.
“That way, we will never have a simplified GST,” he said at the ‘Special Session on Resilient and Self-Sufficient India’.
A “lot of abuse” of the GST provisions was also taking place, he said without elaborating.
Read more at : NDTV
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