'99% of goods earlier taxed at 12% now in 5% GST slab'

CHENNAI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the GST reforms are a huge victory for every citizen.Taking into account that every state in India has its own festivals, it has been decided to implement the GST reforms much ahead of PM Modi's instruction of launching them before Deepavali festival, Sitharaman said at an event in Chennai.She said the beneficial impact of GST would be there for all products from the start of the day till people go to bed. Explaining key initiatives, Sitharaman said 99% of all the goods which were earlier taxed 12% under GST have been reduced to 5%.The GST reforms are set to come into force from Sept 22. Referring to the increase in tax base from traders, she said before the GST was introduced in 2017, there were only 66 lakh traders who used to file their taxes.

But today, 1.5 crore businesses have come under the GST fold."In 2017, the tax collected was Rs 7.19 lakh crore and now the Gross GST collection has crossed Rs 22 lakh crore. On an average, Rs 1.8 lakh to 2 lakh crore revenue is collected by the Central and state governments. For example, the amount Rs 1.80 lakh crore gross revenue is divided into half in which the states get Rs 90,000 crore and Centre gets Rs 90,000 crore. Even from that Rs 90,000 crore revenue from the Centre's portion, around 41 per cent goes back to the states," she said.

"From this, we can understand that public and the state government stand to benefit through the implementation of the GST", she added."There are no taxes on popcorn sold on the roadside. But however, when the same popcorn is branded and produced in a factory, this classification comes into effect. But, in the latest GST reforms, it has been simplified. Now, all food products come under 5% slab or no tax has been levied.

So, there is no problem of classification anymore. This popcorn is an example ," she said.