This is what Central Board of Excise & Customs has done to assist users find accurate rates under GST

Image: Representational/PTI

New Delhi: Aiming to enhance the ease of doing business post the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) on Friday launched a mobile app 'GST Rates Finder' to assist users find accurate rates under the new tax regime. Launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the app is available on Android platform and will soon be available on iOS platform as well. This app helps users to find rates of GST levied on various goods and services. It can be downloaded on any smart phone and can work in offline mode, once downloaded. To find the required rate, users can enter the name or chapter heading of the commodity or service in the search box provided. The search result will list all the goods and services containing the name which was typed in the search box. The user can scroll down the list of description and when any specific item on the list is clicked, the display window will pop-up, containing details such as the GST rate, description of goods or services and the chapter heading of the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN). Apart from functioning as a mobile app, the CBEC has also provided a GST rate finder on its portal to help the taxpayers know the applicable GST rate on their supplies of goods and services. A taxpayer can search for applicable rates of Central, State, Union Territory GST and compensation cess on a supply. This will empower not only the taxpayers, but every citizen of the nation, to ascertain the correct GST rate on goods and services. About GST: Goods and Services Tax (GST) is an indirect tax applicable throughout country which replaced multiple cascading taxes levied by the central and state governments. GST was introduced as The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act 2017, following the passage of Constitution 122nd Amendment Bill and is governed by a GST Council. Its chairman is the Finance Minister of India Arun Jaitley. Under it goods and services are taxed at the following rates, 0%, 5%, 12% and 18%. There is also a special rate of 0.25% on rough precious and semi-precious stones and 3% on gold. In addition to the above ones, a cess of 15% or other rates on top of 28% GST applies on few items like aerated drinks, luxury cars and tobacco products.