Industry body FICCI on Sunday welcomed the reduction of GST rates on 23 items by the GST council at its meeting held on Saturday.

The decision took the landmark reform to the next level by indicating that the 28% bracket is already moving towards a sunset, it said.

"The GST council has followed a pragmatic policy by bringing down the rates gradually taking into consideration the revenue realisation and affordability and this will stabilise and strengthen GST further. " said FICCI President Sandip Somany.

"FICCI applauds the decision of the GST Council in understanding the concerns of the industry and extending the due date for filing GST annual return and GST audit to June 30, 2019. This would provide a big relief to the businesses and strengthen compliance," he added.

"Constitution of the Committee regarding extension of the composition scheme to small service providers for proposing rate of tax and threshold limit is also a step in the right direction," he said.