New Delhi
Emphasising that in the past one year there has been a reduction of tax in 384 commodities with no increase on a single product, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that India has never witnessed such mass tax reduction since Independence.

In a Facebook post, Jaitley said the 28 per cent category under GST is being phased out.

Bulk of the items remaining in this category is only luxury items or sin goods. The other items outside the luxury-sin goods category are cement, air-conditioners, large screen televisions and a handful of others.

Jaitley indicated that with further expansion of revenues, these few items may also witness a change of category.

Thus within a record period of thirteen months, the GST Council has almost phased out the 28 per cent category, he said.

“It is only a matter of time that the final obituary of the ‘Congress Legacy Tax’ is written. Only the luxury-sin tax would remain,” he added.

Jaitley said if the entire category of all the slabs is taken, the past one year has seen reduction of tax on 384 commodities with no increase on a single product.

India has never witnessed such mass tax reduction since Independence, he claimed.

Similarly, in the services category, he added, which has now become a part of the GST, on four different occasions 68 different categories of services have witnessed their rates reduced.

The net revenue loss which government have suffered on account of the reduction of tax on goods and services is about Rs70,000 crores.

Jaitley said since state governments have been guaranteed a 14 per cent increase over their pre-GST revenues for the first five years, this burden has entirely been borne from the share of the Central Government.

“This tax reduction has reduced the cost to the consumers, increased his purchasing capacity and added to the increased consumption in the economy. All household items stand reduced from 28 per cent to 18 per cent and 12 per cent,” the minister added.

Commenting on the passage of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013, Jaitley wrote that the Bill seeks to punish both the bribe giver and bribe taker.

Jaitley pointed out that the Bill has also corrected a fundamental flaw in the Act. The wide definition of corruption, which is referred to as ‘criminal misconduct’ in the original Act had a potential for including in its ambit, not merely dishonest decisions taken with a dishonest intention but as the history of its functioning shows, could also include honest decision taken by honest individuals which subsequently turn out to be erroneous.

“The scare created amongst the civil servants, bankers, heads of public sector undertakings and other decision makers, who have seen in the last few years professional investigation graduating into investigating adventurism, have a reason to be relieved,” the minister said.