Finance Ministry Lists GST Achievements On Arun Jaitley's Death Anniversary

The finance ministry in a series of tweets highlighted what it claimed as positive changes brought under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, on the occasion of the first death anniversary of former finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday. Notably, Mr Jaitley held the ministry when the GST was implemented in July 2017. Terming the implementation of GST as a 'landmark reform', the finance ministry tweeted that earlier, the combination of value added tax (VAT), excise duty, sales tax and their cascading effect resulted in the standard tax rate being as high as 31 per cent in some cases.

The finance ministry further said that taxpayer base has almost doubled to 1.24 crore under GST and that it has proved to be both consumer and taxpayer-friendly.

In a separate thread, the ministry listed a number of items whose tax rates, it claimed, have come down under the new tax system. The finance ministry said that from daily use items  such as hair oil, toothpaste and soap to home appliances, cinema tickets and eating out - the tax rates have come down under GST regime.
 

The former finance minister died on 24 August 2019, aged 66. He was appointed as the finance minister in the first term of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2014. He had opted out of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, citing health reasons.