FICCI welcomes the reduction of GST rates on 23 items by the GST council at its meeting held on Saturday and taking the landmark reform to the next level by indicating that the 28% bracket is already moving towards a sunset.

With a reduction in the rates on more items in the offing in the next meeting of the GST Council next month and the indication that the remaining issues pertaining to GST application and administration will be resolved speedily, the tax reform is set to yield larger gains for the economy.

"The GST council has followed a pragmatic policy by bringing down the rates gradually taking into consideration the revenue realisation and affordability and this will stabilise and strengthen GST further. The Government has been proactively engaging with various sectors and I am confident that going forward the Council would continue to address issues," said Sandip Somany, President, FICCI.

"FICCI applauds the decision of the GST Council in understanding the concerns of the industry and extending the due date for filing GST annual return and GST audit to June 30, 2019. This would provide a big relief to the businesses and strengthen compliance," he added. 

"Constitution of the Committee regarding extension of the composition scheme to small service providers for proposing rate of tax and threshold limit is also a step in the right direction."

Reduction in the rate of GST on movie tickets was a long pending FICCI'srecommendation and is very welcome and would benefit the film industry. The GST rate of 5% prescribed on solar power generating plant and other renewable energy plants would put the litigation on rest surrounding this issue.