Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the goods and services tax regulation has to be simple and consumer friendly, emphasizing that the government is committed to hearing all the issues being faced by people related it and placing them in front of the GST council.
"GST needs to be simple and consumer friendly, work is constantly going on in this direction," Modi said while speaking in an interview to news agency ANI.
"Our approach is to keep taking feedback constantly and work on the GST too is happening like this," he added.
The PM stressed that the decisions related to goods and services tax regulation are taken by the GST Council, wherein the central government is only one of the key stakeholders . "The GST council has a wide range of members. There are state governments too, many of them where the BJP is not in power, and hence whatever is happening is happening through consensus," he stated.
The GST regime has made things simpler for businesses and consumers as it brought down the tax rates for multiple commodities, Modi said. "Earlier, there were so many hidden taxes. The tax rates were also high. GST has made things simpler."
PM Modi admitted that small businesses faced discomfort due to the GST roll out and said he wanted to bring relief package for them, but lamented the consensus could not be reached in the council. "I wanted to bring relief for small businesses with annual turnover of under Rs 20 lakh, and wanted to raise the threshold to Rs 75 lakh, but there was no consensus in the GST Council."
The goods and services tax regulation was rolled out in July 2017. It has subsumed multiple indirect taxes, including CENVAT, service tax etc.
The Prime Minister also told the agency that the Former Reserve Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel had informed him that he'd wanted to resign much earlier on account of personal reasons. Patel had quit in early December last year amid standoff between the finance ministry and the Central Bank on multiple issues.
"GST needs to be simple and consumer friendly, work is constantly going on in this direction," Modi said while speaking in an interview to news agency ANI.
"Our approach is to keep taking feedback constantly and work on the GST too is happening like this," he added.
The PM stressed that the decisions related to goods and services tax regulation are taken by the GST Council, wherein the central government is only one of the key stakeholders . "The GST council has a wide range of members. There are state governments too, many of them where the BJP is not in power, and hence whatever is happening is happening through consensus," he stated.
The GST regime has made things simpler for businesses and consumers as it brought down the tax rates for multiple commodities, Modi said. "Earlier, there were so many hidden taxes. The tax rates were also high. GST has made things simpler."
PM Modi admitted that small businesses faced discomfort due to the GST roll out and said he wanted to bring relief package for them, but lamented the consensus could not be reached in the council. "I wanted to bring relief for small businesses with annual turnover of under Rs 20 lakh, and wanted to raise the threshold to Rs 75 lakh, but there was no consensus in the GST Council."
The goods and services tax regulation was rolled out in July 2017. It has subsumed multiple indirect taxes, including CENVAT, service tax etc.
The Prime Minister also told the agency that the Former Reserve Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel had informed him that he'd wanted to resign much earlier on account of personal reasons. Patel had quit in early December last year amid standoff between the finance ministry and the Central Bank on multiple issues.