The Kerala government is hoping to rake in some Rs 1,000 crore via the newly imposed flood cess over GST within two years. The 1% cess will be effective from June 1.
“This will be used for the infrastructure development of the villages ravaged by the August 2018 floods,” state finance minister TM Thomas Isaac told the state assembly.
Earlier, in his budget speech for 2018-2019, Isaac had proposed to impose the flood cess from April 1, 2019, extending to the next fiscal. However, since the code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections was operative, this had to be postponed.
All items with GST above 5% will be imposed with an additional 1% for the next two years.The imposition of the flood cess will make both goods like medicines and white goods like LCD TV, digital camera, fridge etc costlier in Kerala from June 1. However, the notification of flood cess makes it clear that essential goods like rice, which falls in the lower GST slab, will not face a price surge.
