Union Minister of State for Minorities Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi responded positively to the plea of the Telangana government for reduction of Goods and Services Tax rate on granite, textiles, beedi and cinema tickets.
Mr. Naqvi, who participated in the GST Awareness Programme organised by the Institute of Chartered Accounts of India, was responding to the request made by Somesh Kumar, Principal Secretary, Commercial Taxes, Telangana State. Mr. Kumar also said the Telangana government, which was implementing several flagship programmes, would be burdened with additional tax of ₹19,500 crore because of the present rate of 18% on construction material. It would be helpful if it was revised to five %, he said.
Mr. Naqvi assured Mr. Kumar that he would take the request to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and also to the officials of the departments concerned.
He said the ongoing discussion and consultation process between the government and trade and industry was to clear misconceptions and confusion among different sections.
Union Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said he would also take up the State’s plea with the Prime Minister to bring down the GST on some goods and services. Mr. Modi brought economic unity of the nation, including J&K, through GST. In the days to come, prices of food items would come down further and 1.6 lakh new jobs would be generated because of the GST. In the automobile sector alone, 6.6 crore jobs would be generated post-GST as huge FDIs would come into the sector.
Representatives of ICAI, State and Central Customs and GST officials, members of trade and industry also spoke.
