The all powerful GST Council Thursday approved GST rates at 5%,12%, 18% and 28%. The council has decided to tax most of the products consumed by common man at a low rate of 5%.
And there will be two standard rates of 12 and 18%. Finance Minister said that the preparation for GRT roll out is as per schedule.
The lower rates is for essential items and highest band of 28% is for luxury goods.
FM Jaitley said that zero-tax rate will be applied to 50 pc of items in CPI basket, including foodgrains used by common man.
Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament, had approved the constitutional amendment bill in August 2016.
Earlier this month, the panel decided that base year for calculating the revenue of a state would be 2015-16 and a growth rate of 14 per cent would be taken for calculating the likely revenue of each state in the first five years of implementation of GST.
States getting lower revenue than this would be compensated by the Centre.
The government plans to bring two separate legislations in the upcoming winter session to roll out a common goods and serivces tax across the country from April 2017.
