Businesses with annual turnover of up to Rs 40 lakhs are GST exempt: Finance Ministry

New Delhi [India], Aug 24 : Businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs 40 lakhs are Goods and Services Tax (GST) exempt and those with a turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore can opt for the Composition Scheme and pay only one per cent tax, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.
According to the ministry, the GST exemption limit earlier was Rs 20 lakhs.
"Now, Businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs 40 lakh are GST exempt. Initially, this limit was Rs 20 lakh. Additionally, those with a turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore can opt for the Composition Scheme and pay only 1% tax," the Ministry of Finance tweeted.
In a series of tweets, the Ministry also informed that significant reliefs have been extended to the construction sector, particularly the housing sector which has been placed at the 5 per cent tax rate.
"Significant relief has been extended to the construction sector, particularly the housing sector. It has now been placed at the 5% rate. GST on affordable housing has been reduced to 1%," it added.
"Once GST was implemented, the tax rate on a large number of items was brought down. As of now, the 28% rate is almost solely restricted to sin and luxury items. Out of a total of about 230 items in the 28% slab, about 200 items have been shifted to lower slabs," the Ministry of Finance said in a following tweet.
The Ministry of Finance said that the taxpayer base has almost doubled since the roll out of GST.
"The numbers of assessee covered by the GST at the time of its inception were about 65 lakh. Now the assessee base exceeds 1.24 crore... All process in GST have been fully automated. Till now 50 crore returns have been filed online and 131 crore e-way bill generated," it said in the following tweets.
The move comes as another relief for businesses across the country, which are dealing with the adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier, the Central government had also announced an economic package to revive the economy.