GST Rate Rationalisation Needs To Be Carried Out, Says Finance Secretary

The rationalisation of rates under the goods and services tax regime is an exercise that needs to be carried out, Finance and Revenue Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said.

Addressing a FICCI event on Monday, Pandey said that there is "hope that we can carry out rationalisation in GST as well." His comments came in the backdrop of reduction of income tax rates and restructuring of tax slabs, as announced in the Union Budget 2025 on Saturday.

"Rationalisation is needed. There is recognition that it is needed. But how exactly it will be able to translate and what are the numbers we will be able to arrive at... Which are the rates we will be able to arrive at, that further exercise will be done by GoM," Pandey said.

Rate rationalisation in GST falls under the ambit of the GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The council comprises state finance ministers, and it has set up a Group of Ministers, or GoM, to suggest changes in GST rates and reduce slabs. The report was expected in the previous Council meeting in Jaisalmer in December, but it did not surface.

GST is currently levied across four slabs — 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. Petroleum products have also been sought to be brought under the ambit of GST.