Only luxury and 'sin' items could be left in highest slab

12 and 18 per cent slabs could be merged in the future: FinMin official

Many commonly used items seem set to become cheaper, with the goods and services tax (GST) Council expected to trim the number of items in the top slab of 28 per cent at a meeting on Friday in Guwahati.

Furniture, electric switches, shampoos, sanitary ware and handicrafts might be brought to 18 per cent, from 28 per cent now, sources said. Also, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said some of these items should never have been in the latter category. 

The GST Council has in the past four meetings been reducing rates, bringing down those on a little over 100 items from