Recommendations made by GST Council will benefit citizens: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the recommendations made by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council would benefit the citizens and add strength to the GST, soon after the 23rd council meeting took place.

Taking to Twitter, Prime Minister Modi said, "The recommendations made by the GST Council today will further benefit our citizens and add strength to the GST. These recommendations are in spirit of the continuous feedback we are getting from various stakeholders on GST."

"Jan Bhagidari is at the core of our working. All our decisions are people-inspired, people-friendly and people-centric. We are working tirelessly for India's economic integration through GST," the prime minister added.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, earlier in the day, announced moving 178 items from the 28 per cent to the 18 per cent tax bracket under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), applicable from November 15.

The changes in the tax system were decided at the 23rd GST Council meeting headed by the finance minister, at Guwahati today.

"Having done the exercise, in the last three meetings, we have been systematically looking at the 28 per cent tax bracket and rationalising items from it to the lesser category," Jaitley said, while addressing the press.

The items include aircraft parts, construction materials, detergent, toiletries and other such items.

Further, 13 items were moved from the 18 per cent to the 12 per cent tax bracket, six items from 18 per cent to 5 per cent, eight items from 12 per cent to 5 per cent, and six items from 5 per cent to nil.

In another major change, the ITC (input tax credit) benefit to all restaurants barring starred hotels has been cancelled. Accordingly, restaurants in starred-hotels will charge 18 per cent tax with the ITC, while other restaurants will charge the GST of five per cent without the ITC.

The GST council meeting also brought some relief to tax-payers by reducing the penalty for late tax filing.