GST recast must to help businessman: Revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia

New Delhi: Revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia has said that some overhaul of the GST rates is needed to reduce the burden on small and medium businesses and the common man. “There is a need for some rejig in rates... It is possible that some items in the same chapter are divided. There is a need for harmonisation of items chapterwise, and wherever we find there is a big burden on small and medium businesses and on the common man, if we bring them down, there will be a better compliance,” Mr Adhia told a news agency.

The 23rd GST Council meeting is due to be held on November 10 in Guwahati. In view of the coming Assembly polls in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat that is expected in December, the government is worried about the anger in the business community over GST and is looking at ways to pacify them.

The Centre is trying to reduce the compliance burden of GST and bring down rates to win support from the trading community. The GST Council has already rationalised the rates on over 100 commodities, and made the refund process a lot easier for exporters. The revenue secretary said the GST will take about a year to stabilise. “It will take one year. Because it is a new system for everybody... there has been a complete overhaul of the tax system in GST, so one year is needed,” said Mr Adhia.