Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressed the nation after an eight-hour long Goods and Services Tax (GST) council meeting that ended on Friday, October 6.
Announcing big relief in the GST regime for exporters and small and medium businesses, Jaitley announced a list of products for which the GST rate has been dramatically reduced. What stands out is the drop in GST rates for khakhra, the famous Gujarati snack, from 12 percent to 5 percent. This comes ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled to be held in Gujarat later this year.
In total, the GST rates of 27 commodities have been reduced. Here are some of the new tax rates:
5% to Nil
- Duty credit scrips
12% to 5%
- Khakhra/chapati
- Unbranded namkeen
- Unbranded ayurvedic medicines
- Paper waste
- Job works
- Sliced dry mangoes
- Real zari
18% to 5%
- Plastic waste
- Cullet or other waste or scrap of glass
- Food preparation put up in unit containers and intended for free distribution to economically weaker sections
- Biomass briquettes
- E-waste
- Plastic waste, parings or scrap
- Rubber waste, parings or scrap
18% to 12%
- Manmade yarn
- Sewing thread of manmade filaments
- All synthetic filament yarn (nylon, polyester etc)
- All artificial filament yarn (viscose rayon, Cuprammonium etc)
28% to 18%
- Flooring stones
- Stationary items
- Diesel engine parts
- Pumps
- Poster Colour
- Modelling paste for children's amusement
28% to 5%
- E-waste
Other than these products, a group of ministers will also relook the current GST rate of 18 percent on air-conditioned restaurants to bring it down to 12 percent. They will present their recommendations in two weeks.
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