Letter to BS: Reason for under performance of revenues is not evasion

The real reason for under performance is slowdown in the economy and fixing the target too high keeping fiscal deficit in view

This refers to Mihir Sharma’s column “The big GST question” (August 6). I find it difficult to agree with his postulate and conclusions. His first postulate is that the goods and service tax (GST) was supposed to be a single rate tax. It is not so. The government never said anything to that effect. In fact, the former finance minister Arun Jaitley famously said that chappals and refrigerator cannot pay same rate of tax. Let me point out that Belgium, Canada (if you include sale tax), Brazil, China, France, Germany, Sweden, UK and others have multiple tax rates. We cannot