GST has reduced the rate at which people have to pay tax: Finance Ministry

GST has helped increase compliance and doubled taxpayer base to 12.4 million, the ministry said in a series of tweets

The Finance Ministry on Monday said GST has reduced the rate at which people have to pay tax, helped increase compliance and doubled taxpayer base to 12.4 million.

In a series of tweets, on the first death anniversary of former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the ministry said before goods and services tax (GST), the combination of value-added tax (VAT), excise, sales tax and their cascading effect resulted in high standard rate of tax up to 31 per cent.

It is now widely acknowledged that GST is both consumer and taxpayer-friendly. While the high tax rates of the pre-GST era acted as