New Delhi, Sept. 4 -- Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the revised Goods and Services Tax (GST) slabs are designed to ease the burden on the common man, small traders, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Speaking to ANI, Chaudhary explained, "The purpose behind making two slabs was that earlier there used to be four slabs, 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent, 28 percent and a lot of confusion was created in it. This has been done to remove that and to make the work of making GST easier."

The rationalisation reduces the levy on a wide range of raw materials vital for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), with rates in several cases lowered from 12 percent to 5 percent.

The introduction of two s...