ME News Bureau: New Delhi: The ascending movement of the world economy will also help India which has been growing at the "new normal" growth rate of 7-8 per cent, according to the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. He was replying to a debate on the second batch of supplementary demands of grants in the Lok Sabha.
The decision to bring petroleum products under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be taken by the GST Council, Jaitley stated.
The lower house later sanctioned the supplementary demands envisioning a total further expenditure of about Rs. 66,113 crore, of which Rs. 33,379 crore would be the net outgo.
Jaitley also took a gibe at the Congress, saying that there was no talk of 'Gabbar Singh Tax' when the overall indirect tax rate was 31 to 31.5 per cent on average before introduction of the GST. He said, "When you imposed 31.5 per cent tax that included excise, VAT, CST and spilling effect, nobody remembered the Gabbar Singh Tax. The current tax rate is only 18 per cent."
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress President, had labelled the GST as 'Gabbar Singh Tax' during his Gujarat election campaign.
Speaking on the inclusion of petroleum goods under GST, Jaitley dared the Congress party to ask their chief ministers in five states to openly declare that they prefer GST on petroleum products. He stated,” Petroleum products are rated zero under the GST and a decision would be taken by the GST Council on whether to bring them under GST.”
