99% of goods in 12% GST bracket moved to 5%, says Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Sunday (September 14, 2025), mentioned the GST regime has benefited each the individuals and the State governments.

Addressing the joint conclave of Trade and Industries Association in Chennai on the subject ‘Tax Reforms for Rising Bharat’, she mentioned in the most recent GST reforms, 99% of all of the goods which had been in the 12% GST bracket have now come beneath the 5% GST bracket.

“This is a reform which touches the lives of all 140 crore people. The GST rate cuts in the range of 10-13% will reduce the expenses for people and they can use that extra savings elsewhere,” Ms. Sitharaman mentioned.

She additionally expressed confidence that the businesses would cross on the advantages of price cuts to the shoppers. “When the GST was introduced in 2017, there were 65 lakh taxpayers. Today there are 1.51 crore taxpayers,” she added.

“The gross GST receipts which were ₹7.19 lakh crore in 2017 has now touched ₹22 lakh crore. On average, per month GST collection is ₹1.9 lakh crore or ₹2 lakh crore for Central and State governments which is divided in the ratio of 50:50,” Ms. Sitharaman mentioned.

“If the monthly GST collection is ₹1.8 lakh crore, ₹90,000 crore goes to the States and ₹90,000 crore comes to the Centre. Out of the Centre’s ₹90,000 crore, 41% goes to the States,” she added.

Ms. Sitharaman famous that just about eight months of work went into GST 2.0 reforms and the speed rationalisation was effected with cooperation from Finance Ministers of all States in the GST Council. “GST rates for over 350 items have been reduced,” she famous.

“Systems have been simplified so that GST registration can be done in three days,” Ms. Sitharaman mentioned. “Another major step is addressing the product classification problems in GST 2.0,” she mentioned.

“There were different Court rulings on GST rates from different States,” she talked about.

“Now we have brought all food items at 5% or 0%. So there is no classification problem. We have brought similar classification for one type of goods. We worked on it for eight months looking into each item and what category it should be classified,” Ms. Sitharaman mentioned.

She additionally identified that the lower in private earnings tax charges, the brand new Income Tax Act and the GST reforms have all been carried out in a span of eight months. The GST refunds have additionally been simplified, Ms. Sitharaman mentioned.

“The GST reforms was a policy driven exercise. We did it keeping in mind five major points — whether there will be changes in daily use items, whether we are bringing changes in the daily use items used by poor and middle class, whether it would be helpful for the farmers, whether the raw material cost for MSMEs would come down and finally whether it will benefit the sectors which will boost the economy,” she mentioned.

Speaking on the occasion, A.R. Unnikrishnan, Chairman of CII Tamil Nadu State Council and G.S.Ok. Velu, Chairman, Federation Of Indian Chambers Of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Tamil Nadu State Council amongst different industrialists welcomed the GST reforms.

Linesh Sanatkumar, President, Hindustan Chamber of Commerce mentioned the rise in GST price of paper and paperboard to 18% from 12% has come as a significant shock to your entire fraternity.

He additionally hunted for rationalisation of GST on coastal delivery and inland water transport (IWT) that are acknowledged as the important thing driver for decreasing logistics price in India and different measures.

Tamil Nadu Traders Association President A.M. Vikramaraja flagged the problem of harassment of merchants by some GST officers and sought formation of a committee to tackle the problem. He additionally sought a scheme to allow merchants to settle previous GST dues.