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Perception Matters, Prices Of 85 Per Cent Goods Has Come Down: Kerala FM On GST

Swarajya Staff

Jul 04, 2017, 08:37 AM | Updated 08:37 AM IST

Kerala Finance Minister Dr T M Thomas Isaac

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac who had worked to formulate the tax strcture under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in tandem with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the centre, has come out in support of the new tax regime, stating that perception matters.

Inaugurating the GST rollout in Kerala, the former economics professor-turned politician said that it would be easier to prepare taxes now.

Through GST it can lead to price rise, but many will ask how. Certain items which had an earlier rate of tax at 14.5 per cent are now placed in the 18 per cent tax rate. But one should not forget this very same item had an excise duty of 14 per cent, so when all the various taxes are added it would come to 28 per cent, but now it has come down to 18 per cent. One has to be careful as it’s all about perception and how one sees it.

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac

He further said that although the price of 85 per cent goods had come down, the need of the hour was for the general public to insist on bills so that leakages in the system are brought down. Isaac said that in the coming days a detailed list showing the pre-GST and current tax rates would be published and that new GST software would be available with support from the National Informatics Centre.

Both the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led opposition have agreed that Kerala would gain under GST due to its virtue of being a consumer state. Tax collections are estimated to rise by 20 per cent over the next three years. Isaac even added that the revenue deficit of the state would come down and completely disappear in a few years.