GST rates reduced on 27 items, relief to small and medium businesses

Government held a GST council meeting in which Arun Jaitley said Small businesses would be allowed to file tax returns once a quarter instead of monthly returns. Small and medium business, enterprises (SMEs) and exporters have got relief after series of changes in GST.

The Council also lowered tax rates on 27 products and a few services and asked a panel of state ministers to examine if the 18% GST on air-conditioned restaurants could be lowered, finance minister Arun Jaitley said after the meeting.



Two pre-GST era schemes will be continues that allow duty-free sourcing of materials for export production till March 2018. All tax refund claims will be cleared for July by 10 October and for August by 18 October the Council decided . 0.1 percent GST rate for merchant exporters, was introduced.