GST must go back to drawing board; rates need to be simplified: N K Singh

The official said that GST needed to be revenue neutral and that the GST Council needed to move from multiplicity of rates to one standard rate.

The goods and service tax (GST) needs to be taken back to the drawing board and simplified, the Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh said on Tuesday.

“GST needs to go back to the drawing board. We need simplicity of rates. Whether one rate or not is a matter of debate,” Singh said, adding in its current form, GST had made compliance very difficult.

Singh was speaking at the launch of a book by former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar and economist Ajay Shah. In a chapter in the book, the authors have proposed a single-rate GST of 10 per