The goods and services tax (GST) rates will not be revised unless there is an anomaly or the rates are unjustified, the central board of excise and customs (CBEC) chairperson Vanaja Sarna said on Wednesday. However, she assured the industry that revenue authorities will go slow in undertaking enforcement actions under GST for the first six months to give businesses adequate time to settle down into the new indirect tax regime. FE had reported earlier that nearly 7.4 lakh new businesses have registered for GST since June 25 when the registration for new taxpayers was opened. With the migration of over 70 lakh existing taxpayers into the GST system and another 7.4 lakh new taxpayers, the total GST taxpayer base is numerically close to the previous Centre-state indirect tax assessee base of 80 lakh. On the enforcement issue, the CBEC chairperson said that the department had legacy issues to deal with, and “we are not plunging into this (GST compliance) now”. She added that there will be genuine errors due to lack of understanding in the initial days.

(Financial Express)