The Finance Ministry on Monday said that businesses with an
annual turnover of up to Rs. 40 lakh are exempted from paying Goods and
Services Tax (GST). Earlier, the limit set by the government was Rs. 20 lakh. It further added that businesses with a turnover up to Rs.
1.5 crore, can opt for the Composition Scheme and pay only 1% tax.

“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 Finance Ministry said in a
series of tweets.

“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.

“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,” it further
read.

“All process in GST have been fully automated. Till now 50
crore returns have been filed online and 131 crore e-way bill generated,” the
Finance Ministry added.