New Delhi :
The GST Council have cut tax rates on 88 Items including footwear, refrigerator, washing machine and small screen T.V, while sanitary napkins, idols made of stone, marble, wood, rakhi not embedded with stone, sal leaves are exempted from the Goods and Service tax.
Sanitary napkins to be exempted from Goods & Services Tax (GST): Finance Minister Piyush Goyal pic.twitter.com/m7YoJnCGKY
— ANI (@ANI) July 21, 2018
The GST on Lithium-ion batteries, vacuum cleaners, food grinders, mixers, shavers, hair clippers, storage water heaters, electric smoothing irons, water coolers, ice-cream freezers, refrigerators, hand-dryers, cosmetics, perfumes, scents, paints, varnishes which was 28% earlier has been reduced to 18%.
Lithium ion batteries, vacuum cleaners, food grinders, mixers, storage water heaters, head dryers, hand dryers, paint,varnishes, water cooler, milk cooler, ice cream coolers,perfumes, toilet sprays and toilet preparation brought to 18% from 28% slab: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal pic.twitter.com/EpI2Waj9VB
— ANI (@ANI) July 21, 2018
Footwear costing up to Rs.1,000 will now attract 5% GST, earlier it was 5% on footwear of Rs. 500.
GST on ethanol sold to oil companies for blending with petrol and diesel reduced to 5% from 18% earlier.
GST on handbags, jewellery box, wooden box for paintings, artware of glass, stone endeavour, ornamental framed mirrors, handmade lamps, etc is reduced to 12%.
GST on imported urea reduced to 5% also tax on E-books reduced to 5% from 18%.
The hotel industry too has been given major relief. GST at the rate of 28% in levied if hotel room rent exceeds ₹7,500. Between ₹2,500 to below ₹7,500 GST is levied at 18% and that of ₹1,000 and below ₹2,500 it is 12%.
The Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal also said that quarterly returns could be filed for businesses of turnover up to Rs 5 crore instead of monthly filings. However, tax payment will be monthly. Nearly 93 percent traders and small businesses will get benefited from this. Exemption limit for traders in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Himalaya, Sikkim, increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh.
Goyal also said that besides revenue collection, the GST council will also focus on job creation as well. He added that a special meeting will be held on 4 August that will be focused on micro, small and medium enterprise sector.
Besides revenue collection, the GST council will now focus on job creation as well. The decisions taken today will be applicable from July 27: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal pic.twitter.com/lrEzGcRdP1
— ANI (@ANI) July 21, 2018
Union minister Arun Jaitley said the rate reduction will go a long way in pushing productivity upward. “This is a major step towards rationalising the 28% tax slab, which has been narrowed to only a few commodities in the past 13 months,” Jaitley tweeted.
#GSTCouncil in the 28th meeting has continued its endeavour to simplify processes, further rationalise tax rates, & enhance cooperative federalism. Today’s decisions of the Council will go a long way in pushing productivity upward.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) July 21, 2018
This is a major step towards rationalising the 28% tax slab which has been narrowed to only a few commodities in the past thirteen months.
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) July 21, 2018
The revised tax rates will come into effect from July 27.