Small and medium traders of Assam are happy that GST council last night extends the tax exemption slab from Rs 10 Lakh to Rs 20 Lakh. Earlier any traders having a monthly transaction of over Rs 80,000 have to file tedious monthly returns. This was a big headache for traders of Assam as in rest of India exemption limit was Rs 20,000.

Union Minister of State for Finance Piyush Goyal after chairing the GST council, informed that Assam would be at par with the rest of India. That means any traders whose monthly turnover is not above Rs 1,66,000 should not file GST return.

This will come to a great relief as over 70 per cent of Assam traders fall in that category. Meanwhile keeping an eye on the upcoming General Election, the council has also done away with monthly returns and from now onward it will be quarterly return with monthly taxes.

Although tax exemption news is good for traders but not for the state government as the tax net will further be shrinked as most of the Assam traders are very small and medium.