GST Council may review rates on textiles, hybrid cars, says CBEC

Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairperson Vanaja Sarna on Friday said the next Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meet, scheduled on August 5, is likely to review the tax rates on textiles and hybrid cars. "August 5 is still a little away. Different issues will be coming to the table. Things that have been brought to our notice, may be on the rules and the implementation, may be even on rates, possibly textiles and hybrid cars," Sarna said here on the sidelines of the conference on 'Trade Facilitation Agreement: Learning from Implementation Experiences'. The conference was jointly organised by CBEC and industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). "Whatever has been raised and is justified will be taken up. When you roll out something as mammoth as the GST, I would say you will always find problems probably coming in till six months or a year, you will find issues that come up," Sarna said. The industry has been opposing 43 per cent GST on hybrid cars -- 15 per cent cess over the 28 per cent GST rate. The textiles industry is also demanding a roll-back of the 5 per cent GST levy on the sector, which was earlier exempt under the previous indirect tax regime. On the revenue implications under GST, the CBEC Chief said: "We are watching revenue trends after the roll-out of GST. But the real positions will be known after returns are filed. So, we will have to wait for those returns to be filed. We will have to wait till post-September 5 when actually first returns come in because till then it is like a tentative return."

Sarna also said that the National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF) has recently adopted a 76point National Trade Facilitation Action Plan (NTFAP), which is a reflection of the government's commitment to implement the WTO's historic Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley released the NTFAP at an event here on Thursday.