India Plans Tax Reform and GST Reduction Before Diwali Festival, Announces Prime Minister Modi

• India plans a tax reform and reduction of GST on goods and services by the Diwali festival in October.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the reform during his Independence Day speech.
• The government aims to simplify the tax structure and reduce the tax burden nationwide.
• A group of ministers is preparing a report with proposals to unify tax rates and reduce levies on certain products.
• Current GST rates are 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent, and 28 percent, with exceptions for gold and silver.
• Additional surcharges apply to items like cigarettes and luxury cars.
• About 20 percent of products, including packaged foods and clothing, are in the 12 percent GST category.
• Moving these products to lower or higher tax categories could result in a revenue loss of approximately 500 billion rupees or 0.15 percent of GDP.
• This change could increase the total household stimulus package to 0.6 to 0.7 percent of GDP for the financial year 2025 to 2026.

Source: bta.bg

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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