GST Council may change rates if it feels the need: Sushil Kumar Modi

Bengaluru: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and head of the Group of Ministers for tackling IT-related glitches in GST network, Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday ruled out doing away with frequent changes in tax rates under GST.

"The GST Council is competent enough and mandated to take up the issues of GST rates. If the Council feels the need to change the tax rates of some items, so be it. It is for the Council to decide on it," he told reporters.

He was replying to a query on whether the GST Council was thinking of doing away with frequent changes in tax rates.

Some of the industry captains have raised concerns over the changing GST rates, as it affected their business prospects and the confidence of companies.

Among them, Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL), on September 12, had flayed frequent changes in tax rates on automobiles saying investment on new products and technology will be adversely impacted in the absence of consistent and long-term policy.

The GST Council had last week decided to hike cess on mid-size cars by 2 per cent, on large cars by 5 per cent and on SUVs by 7 per cent to bring tax rates on these cars at pre-GST levels.

Modi said even after two years of VAT implementation, there were several changes made in the previous tax regime, but ultimately it stabilised after initial hiccups.

On August 25, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal at Kochi had also said that the government was "not adamant" on GST rates and it could be re-looked by the GST Council depending on revenue realisation. "We have to see the revenue realisation first... The government is not adamant on the rates. We have a federal structure. We have to take the view of the states also in the GST council," he had said.