While the GST council planned to abolish some tax exemptions and adjust the rates for others, several exemptions were actually removed.
Beginning on Monday, customers will pay extra for a variety of commodities, including furniture, lodging, and banking services, as the new Good and Services Tax (GST) rates go into effect on July 18.
At the 47th Council Meet, which was held last month in Chandigarh and presided over by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the GST rates were raised on a number of commodities.
While the GST council planned to abolish some tax exemptions and adjust the rates for others, several exemptions were actually removed. Additionally, the council voted to eliminate duty inversion on commodities whose input taxes were higher than output taxes.
What got Costly:
- 5 per cent GST on pre-packed, labelled food items like atta, paneer, and curd.
- 12 per cent GST on hotel rooms with the tariff of up to Rs 1,000/day, maps and charts.
- 5 per cent GST on hospital rooms, except ICU, with rent above Rs 5,000.
- 18 per cent GST on tetra packs, and cheques — lose or in book form.
- 18 per cent on LED lamps, ink, knives, blades, pencil sharpener, blades, spoons, forks, ladles, skimmers, skimmers, cake servers; printing, writing and drawing ink; fixture and their metal printed circuits board.
- 12 per cent GST on solar water heater instead of the previous 5 per cent.
- Works contract for roads, bridges, railways, metro, effluent treatment plant, crematorium and others by 18 per cent.
- 18 per cent GST on RBI, Irda, and Sebi services and renting of a residential dwelling to business entities.
- 12 per cent GST on bio-medical waste treatment facilities.
What got Cheaper:
- 5 per cent GST on ostomy appliances and on the transport of goods and passengers by ropeways from the previous 12 per cent.
- 12 per cent tax against the previous 18 per cent for renting trucks, goods carriage where the cost of fuel is included.
- GST exemption on air travel to and from north-eastern states and Bagdogra restricted to economy class only.
- 5 per cent GST on electric vehicles, whether or not fitted with a battery pack.
Prasanta Patnaik