Finance Ministry recounts Jaitley's legacy by recounting GST benefits

The Finance Ministry on Monday recounted several achievements of former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who heralded the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and passed away a year ago.

GST subsumed 17 different taxes and 13 cesses. Cinema tickets with high tax ranging from 35 to 110 per cent earlier are now at 12 to 18 per cent in the GST regime, the ministry tweeted.

"Most items of daily use are in zero or 5 per cent slab. The construction of residential complexes saw a steep reduction in rates to 5 per cent in general and 1 per cent for affordable houses."

Common-use items such as hair oil, toothpaste and soap have seen their tax rates come down from 29.3 per cent in the pre-GST era to just 18 per cent under the GST, it added.

At the same time, the taxpayer base has almost doubled since the rollout of GST. The numbers of assessee covered by the GST at the time of its inception were about 65 lakh.

"Now the assessee base exceeds 1.24 crore. All processes in GST have been fully automated," said the ministry.

Now, businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs 40 lakh are GST exempt. Initially, this limit was Rs 20 lakh.

Additionally, those with a turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore can opt for the composition scheme and pay only 1 per cent tax, said the ministry.

( With inputs from ANI )