The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council decided to remove tax exemptions for mass-consumption items ranging from unbranded food items to hotel rooms and daily household goods.
GST rate of 18% will be applicable now, up from the earlier 12%, on a number of items, including printing, writing or drawing ink, knives with cutting blades, blades, pencil sharpeners, spoons, forks, skimmers, cake-servers etc.
Bicycle pumps, machines for cleaning, sorting or grading eggs and fruit and milking machines and dairy machinery, LED lamps, LED lights, will all attract 18% GST now.
Hotel rooms costing below INR 1,000 per day will now attract a 12% tax, there will also be a 5% levy on hospital rooms costing above INR 5000.
‘Unbranded,’ pre-packaged and labelled food items will attract 5% tax, same as branded items. This includes meat and fish, curd, butter milk, paneer, honey etc.
The Council, is likely to approve raising the GST on online skill gaming from 18% to 28% to bring it on a par with ‘chance games’ such as online betting, sources said. GST will be levied on on the full contest entry amount (CEA) instead of the platform fee currently.
GST at the rate of 5% would be applied on room rent above INR 5,000 per day (excluding ICU) charged by hospitals.
Cheque books and maps, which will attract 18% and 12%, respectively.
Similarly, electronic waste will attract 18% GST, instead of 5%.
The Fitment Committee’s proposal to raise tax rate from 12% to 18% on aseptic packaging paper, such as Tetra Packs, was approved.
Air-based flour machines, machinery used in milling industry or for the working of cereals or dried leguminous vegetables other than farm type machines, wet grinders will all attract an 18% GST now, up from 5%.
The GST rate will be raised to 12% from 5% on solar water heaters.
The Council also approved compliance measures such as inclusion of electricity bill data during registration by new taxpayers, real-time validation of all bank accounts, risk assessment using machine learning and mandatory physical verifications of new applicants, and address site verification with geo-coding.
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