GST Council Meet: The 31st Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meet on Saturday brought relief to common people as the tax rates have been cut for 33 items, including some consumer goods such as TV sets, video games, tyres, monitors and movie tickets, among others. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hinted that about 99% of the items will be brought under the 18% GST slab. The 31st GST Council meeting chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at Vigyan Bhawan was attended by finance ministers all the states. After the meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the recommendations by the fitment panel have been considered in today’s meet.
“There are 28 items left in the 28 per cent bracket if we include luxury and sin items. 13 items are from automobile parts and one is cement. Cement’s revenue is Rs 13,000 crore and automobile parts revenue is Rs 20,000 crore. If they are brought down from 28 per cent to 18 per cent implications are of Rs 33,000 crore,” Jaitley said.
Also read: GST Council Meet: From TV sets to video games and other key highlights
”The approval for GST rate reduction on various goods and services like televisions upto 32 inches, cinema tickets, digital cameras, etc, is quite welcome by both the industry and consumers. While consumers would look forward to a reduction in prices, companies including their dealers/ distributors would need to ensure compliance with anti-profiteering provisions for such rate reductions,” said Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, EY.
Here’s the list of common goods & services and taxes you would pay from January 1, 2019
Important items from 28% to 18%
Pulleys, transmission shafts and cranks, gearboxes etc., falling under HS Code 8483
Monitors and TVs of up to screen size of 32 inches
Re-treaded or used pneumatic tyres of rubber;
Power banks of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are already at 18%. This will bring parity in GST rate of power bank and lithium ion battery.
Digital cameras and video camera recorders
Video game consoles and other games and sports requisites falling under HS code 9504.
Important items shifted from 28% to 5%
Parts and accessories for the carriages for disabled persons
Important items from 18% to 12%
Cork roughly squared or debugged
Articles of natural cork
Agglomerated cork
Important items from 18% to 5%
Marble rubble
Important items from 12% to 5%
Natural Cork
Walking Stick
Fly ash Blocks
Important items 12% to nil
Music Books
Important items from 5% to nil
Vegetables, (uncooked or cooked by steaming or boiling water), frozen, branded and put in a unit container
Vegetable provisionally preserved (for example by sulphur dioxide gas, in brine, in sulphur water or in other preservative solutions), but unsuitable in that state for immediate consumption.
