Input tax credit utilisation under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has risen since the GST Council lowered the number of tax slabs to two from four in September last year, Revenue Secretary Arvind Shrivastava said on Thursday. Meanwhile, the average GST rate has declined to 10.84% after last year’s tax cuts from 11.76% previously, and is sharply lower than the revenue-neutral rate of around 15% estimated when the GST regime was introduced in 2017, government officials said.