The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector could see some light at the end of the tunnel, as the Lok Sabha passed the amendment bills to the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Finance Minister Piyush Goyal presented these bills in the Lok Sabha after the GST Council received various kind of feedback about GST.
The bills were The Central GST (Amendment) Bill, the Integrated GST (Amendment) Bill, the GST (Compensation to States) Bill and the Union Territory GST (Amendment) Bill. Piyush Goyal, while presenting the Bills, said that the government is empowering the 125 crore Indians with the “Good and Simple Tax”. He added that India has made an effort to bring very big change of simplifying the taxes.
Goyal said that the government monitor the GST revenues and compliance rate and would slash the GST rates on more items as both increases. In the last round, the GST Council reduced GST on many more items and services — 384 items and 68 services. Goyal elaborated that the government has exempted 186 items — including sanitary pads — and 99 services from the GST. He said that the government is able to collect GST revenues keeping the fiscal deficit target in focus.
Responding to the IMF forecasting a growth of 7.5 per cent in the year 2019-20, Goyal was optimistic that the growth would exceed the projection.
