One year of GST: Rationalisation of slabs would be on agenda soon, says CEA

Certainly, easing of disruptions has been way faster than it was expected, said outgoing Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian

At the function to mark one year of Goods and Service Tax, outgoing Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian was singled out by Union Minister Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, and Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, for his contribution and advice in implementing the nationwide tax. Speaking to Arup Roychoudhury on the sidelines of the event, Subramanian said that now that revenues have stabilised, the process of bringing down GST to a three-rate system should be sooner than expected.
 
What has been your biggest takeaway from GST in its first year?
 
The biggest thing has been that despite all the teething troubles, GST surpassed my expectations in terms of how quickly it stabilised, how the system has responded and the actual revenue performance. And as finance minister Mr Jaitley said, we can expect a lot more from this going forward. Certainly, easing of disruptions has been way faster than it was expected.

 
How soon do you expect the GST Council to start working towards a simpler, possibly three-rate GST?
 
With the revenues now stabilising, this should be happening sooner. This will possibly be in the agenda of the GST Council in the months to come.
 
Another thing that people now expect the GST Council to do is to reach a consensus on items exempted so far.

 
That is something very difficult to predict. I think, and as people have said, we should begin with aviation turbine fuel and then gradually move ahead. I am hopeful. Of course the more oil prices are high, the easier it becomes to put petroleum products under GST.