GST rates for farm gear, electric vehicles may be lowered soon

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The GST Council may take up rationalisation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates for a handful of items at its meeting next week. These items include bio-diesel buses, electric vehicles and irrigation equipment. The GST Council meeting will be its last one before the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1.

The relatively small list for rate reduction was finalised by the fitment committee earlier this week and may be taken up by the GST Council, which is headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprises state finance ministers.“The items qualifying for rate reduction in the upcoming meeting have been picked with an objective of giving a push to agriculture and clean energy.

“Other items in the 28 per cent tax slab will not be taken up this time with revenues yet to stabilise,” said an official. The rate for irrigation equipment may be reduced from 18 per cent to 12 per cent, while that for bio-diesel vehicles and electric vehicles from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. Agriculture sector growth is projected to fall to 2.1 per cent in 2017-18 because of an expected decline in the rabi harvest and an almost 3 per cent fall in kharif production, according to advance estimates by the Central Statistics Office.