Chief economic adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian has said that recent move by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council to cut tax on 178 items, though, will have marginal impact on the revenue but that will be compensated by compliance benefits. He also feels that fall in prices will also help keep inflation under control. Besides, he said that during the meeting of GST council, there were expectations that land and real estate will also be brought under the purview of GST.
Subramanian further said that land, real estate, petroleum products and electricity will now be on the GST Council’s agenda in the next meeting and noted that real estate will be considered first as a lot of black money is tied in this sector. Besides, he said that the other sector that could get prominence in the next GST rejig will be electricity. He noted that the taxes for electricity is embedded in the supply chain and kind of undermine competitiveness of Indian manufacturing. He also pointed out that bringing in electricity will be highly desirable and it will be part of how to make Indian manufacturing competitive. As for how GST is faring, he said that it is too early to get a definitive assessment of how the new tax regime is performing.
Talking on the latest exports growth number for October 2017, CEA has observed that non-oil exports are a little over 9 percent which is substantially higher than what the country did past 8-9 months. He said the non-oil export growth has picked up from 2016. However, he said that India is under-performing as against its peers like Bangladesh. He also stated that it would take few more months to know whether India has put behind the transitional challenges coming after demonetisation and GST and has achieved higher pace of export growth.
Start Research-backed Investing ...Now. Subscribe to Sapphire
MoneyWorks4Me is a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser (IA) dedicated to helping investors build long-term wealth through transparent, research-driven, conflict-free guidance. Founded in 2008, we started our journey as a Research Analyst (RA), providing deep fundamental analysis, intrinsic value insights, and long-term investing frameworks for Indian equities. In 2017, we transitioned to a full-fledged SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, strengthening our commitment to acting as a fiduciary—always putting the investor’s interest first.
To become India’s most trusted, research-powered fiduciary advisory platform—where every investor, regardless of experience, can make calm, confident, and well-reasoned investment decisions.
MoneyWorks4Me ensures this through: