Sushil Kumar Modi, Bihar deputy chief minister and designated convenor of Group of Ministers on IGST, on Saturday said that there was no possibility of any change in goods and services tax (GST) rates untill the revenue stabilises.

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Sushil Modi allayed fears of any hike in GST rate saying the media reports have been wrong in predicting an increase in the rates. He was speaking at FICCI’s 92nd Annual Convention "India: Roadmap to a $5 Trillion Economy".

“I want to assure you that not a single state including the Union government is ready to raise the tax rates,” he said.

“At a time when the economy is in a slowdown, if you cannot cut the tax rate, do not increase the rates to boost consumption. At these times you cut the duties and tax rates, and not increase them,” he said.

On reduction in GST rates, he said that till the time GST revenue did not stabilise, we can't think of decreasing the tax rates. In fact, there was no possibility of any change in slabs and tax rates, hike or cut, in the near future.

The Bihar deputy chief minister further added that the GST Council, in its last meeting, has decided to consider any change in tax rates only once in a year and not in each and every meeting.

Recalling the initial days of value-added tax (VAT) when he was finance minister at Bihar government as he is currently, he said that he was closely watching the execution of GST and enriching the process with learnings from eight different countries.

Compared to the pre-GST period, 99 percent of the goods and services have less taxes levied on them post-GST, he said. However, he added that fake invoicing has become a major issue and the government was looking for ways to check the menace.

The government is facing revenue shortfall, as the central GST collection fell short of the Budget Estimate by about 40 percent in the April-November period of 2019-20.

First Published:Dec 21, 2019 6:09 PM IST