The GST Council comprising the representatives of Central and State Government recommended the GST rates for goods and services, interalia taking into account the pre-GST indirect taxes incidence on goods and service. The GST rates on goods have since been notified. With the GST rates so notified the tax incidence on items like food grain, milk, egg, sugar, vegetable edible oils, spices in GST regime is lower than the tax incidence in the pre-GST regime.

GST tax rates have been fixed with the objective of maintaining revenue-neutrality in the post-GST regime.

Section 171 of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017 provides for Anti-Profiteering measure according to which any reduction in rate of tax on any supply of goods or services or the benefit of input tax credit shall be passed on to the recipient by way of commensurate reduction in prices and the Central Government is in the process of constituting an Authority to examine the same. Many business entities have reduced the prices of their goods and services in view of lower GST rates under the GST regime. They have been publishing these revised rates in leading newspapers from time to time for consumer benefit.

This was stated by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Anti profiteering obligations require businesses to pass on GST rate reductions to consumers under the new tax framework. The note explains that under the Anti Profiteering framework (Section 171) any reduction in tax rates or benefit of input tax credit must be passed to recipients by way of a commensurate reduction in prices and that the Central Government is constituting an Authority to examine compliance; many businesses have reduced prices and published revised rates following lower GST incidence on basic consumables.