Kolkata/IBNS, Sept. 19 -- Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday outlined the "next-generation GST reforms", promising a simpler tax structure, faster compliance and wider relief for households and small businesses at a gathering in Kolkata.

Earlier this month, the GST Council approved a sweeping overhaul of the indirect tax system.

Effective September 22, the Council reduced the four-rate GST structure to two slabs, eliminating the 12% and 28% rates and retaining only the 5% and 18% slabs, a move aimed at easing the burden on the middle class.

"We moved from a complex four-tier structure to a simpler two-rate system of 5 percent and 18 percent," Sitharaman said, adding that demerit and "sin goods" would continue to attr...