Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the Goods and Services Tax Council had revised the tax rates of as many as 66 items, including insulin, out of the representations they received for 133 items ahead of the GST rollout on July 1, ANI reported. “The GST rates on goods decided today would make the goods cheaper for the common man, but may cost to revenue of the government,” Jaitley said while addressing the reporters, according to Times Now.
While the tax rate for insulin had been revised from 12% to 5%, the GST on school bags and printers have been reduced from 28% to 18%. GST on children’s colouring books have been revised from 12% to nil, reported India Today. GST on packaged food items, including instant food mixes, sauces and pickles, have been reduced from 18% to 12% and for cashew nuts, the GST has been reduced from 12% to 5%.
Jaitley said traders, restaurants with a turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh can avail the composition scheme, instead of Rs 50 lakh that was mentioned earlier, reported The Economic Times. Moreover, the tax rate for movie tickets costing above Rs 100 has been decided at 28%, and the ones below Rs 100 have been reduced to 18%, Jaitley said. However, the tax rates on sanitary napkins remain unchanged.
The finance minister said the next meeting of the GST Council will be held on June 18 at 11.30 am.
Last month, the GST Council had clubbed commodities under seven categories of taxes – zero per cent, 5%, 12%, 18%, 28%, a special category and a luxury items category.
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