A panel of officers aimed to improve the current condition of the good and Service tax (GST) has received a suggestion to replace the current slab scheme with a new slab scheme by putting two slabs of 10% and 20% and an additional third slab for sin and luxury goods.

Currently, the committee has not taken any decision they are just listing them before GST council meeting, which includes Union and state finance ministers. In the meeting which was held last week, the council and members did not talk on this matter and also asked the officials to conduct a fresh/ assessment of the scope and impact as ministers believe that the research and analysis were not complete. On the other hand, Several State finance ministers, even from BJP-ruled states, said that they did not support any move of increment in GST rates.

The committee is getting suggestions from stakeholders, and the suggestions did not stop at only reworking the GST slabs. From withdrawing tax benefits on some items, to increase the tax on education and health, they are getting all types of recommendation. Apart from making goods, they also get suggestions to raising taxes of phones from the current level of 12% and reversing the previous changes done on several items by changing taxation from 28% to 18%, which also includes perfumes and refrigerators.

There is also a suggestion to increase the levy on precious metal, such as increasing gold from 3% to 5%.

However, the committee was established to bring a road map for the restructuring of GST to improve its efficiency, increase benefits, and also generate more resources at a tensed time when collections have decreased significantly and threaten to impact central and state finances. There are various other proposals and suggestions to repair the administration to improve compliance, including widening the scope of tax deducted on source and e-invoices, some of them are already under implementation.