Proposed GST slab of 35 percent is a deterrent for growth
Deccan ChronicleThe Government brought in historic tax reforms with the introduction of the Goods and Services tax in 2017, promoting simplicity, while reducing the tax burden. As per media reports, the Group of Ministers on GST Rates Rationalisation has recently proposed a new slab of GST at 35% over and above the existing 4 slabs to products such as aerated drinks and tobacco products considered as demerit goods.The recommendations of the GoM is perplexing since it is purportedly meant to be focusing on rationalisation of rates. Countries tend to tax so called ‘sin’ products due to primarily two reasons, one to increase revenue collection without much change in demand, since these products tend to be inelastic to costs and two with the policy objective of making such taxes an effective economic deterrent / making them less attractive to their consumers and hopefully pushing such consumers to safer alternatives.It is pertinent to note that most major economies with GST or GST like taxation regimes tend to have lesser number of slabs and in any case have a significantly lesser top slab for taxation rate. However, a uniform tax on sugar carbonated drinks inhibits producers from investing and innovating to produce products with low sugar content due to the high tax rate. It is safe to say that such high GST slab at least at the level of being a useful deterrent, misses the woods for the trees from a policy objective perspective, In conclusion, lower rates encourage businesses to be compliant whereas higher rates encourage tax evasion.