GST not a perfect system, requires changes, rate rationalisation: N K Singh

Says finance commission's job is to reconcile divergent objectives

Fifteenth Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh said on Thursday that the goods and services tax (GST) was not a perfect tax system and it required changes, including greater rate rationalisation. 

Singh, who submitted the commission's report to the government, said any finance commission's job was a balancing act to reconcile the different objectives. 

He said no state government was happy with the Fourteenth Finance Commission’s recommendations on devolution, even as it raised it to 42 per cent, from the earlier 32 per cent. The Centre was not happy either, he recalled. 

On GST, he said, “Yes, it is a path-breaking reform... but