Finance minister working for reasonable GST rate: Revenue Secretary

Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is working closely with the concerned departments, industry bodies, officials and others in coming out with what he called a "reasonable" goods and services tax (GST) rate.

In a tweet, Das said, "Working closely on GST rates. Reasonable rates are key to its success. Passage of Bill in Parliament to take us to next activities."

The Union Cabinet has approved amendments to the GST Bill to compensate states for revenue loss for five years on introduction of the uniform nation-wide indirect tax regime, as has been suggested by Rajya Sabha Select Committee.

The government proposes to roll out the new indirect tax regime on April 1, 2016.