Outgoing Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian has expressed confidence that the highest, 28 percent, tax slab under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) may become virtually a hollow shell over the next year or so. Over the last one year, the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister and comprising state ministers, has pruned the 28 percent slab by cutting tax rates on 191 goods, leaving just 35 items, including AC, digital camera, video recorders, dishwashing machine and automobiles, in the highest tax bracket.
Subramanian has said that when the 28 percent tax rate was imposed on certain items under GST, there was a political reaction against it, and the GST Council responded by ‘really whittling down...quite substantially’ the number of products in that slab. He also said that a lot of effort and time was devoted to the simplifying the burden on small and medium enterprises.
CEA stressed on the need to get talent from everywhere outside the government or outside the country as well. He said ‘You need specific expertise. I think the lateral entry is a good thing. Government needs more talent than silicon valley’.