Approval has been given to the changes in the rates of Goods and Service Tax that will come into effect from July 18. The GST Council took this decision which was headed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, including representatives from all states and Union Territories.
List of services and items that will attract GST:
- Pre-packed and labelled meat (except frozen meat) fish, curd, lassi, paneer, honey, dried leguminous vegetables, dried makhana, wheat and other cereals, wheat or meslin flour, jaggery, puffed rice, all goods and organic manure, coir pith will now attract 5% tax.
- Unpacked, unlabelled and unbranded goods will stay exempted from GST.
- A correction to the inverted duty structure was also recommended by the GST Council. It included items like edible oil, coal, LED lamps, printing/drawing ink, finished leather and solar water heater.
- 12% GST will be levied on maps, charts and atlasses.
- Fees charged by banks for issuing cheques will levy an 18% GST.
- 12% tax will be levied on hotel rooms below Rs.1000 per day, as against tax exemption at present.
- Hospital room rent(excluding ICU) that exceeds Rs.5000 per day will attract a 5% GST without ITC.
- Knives with cutting blades, paper knives, pencil sharpeners and blades, spoons, forks, ladles, skimmers, cake servers have been brought under the 18% GST slab.
- To check evasion and with respect to the e-way bill on intra-state movement of gold, precious stones and gold jewellery, it has been recommended by the GST council for the states to decide the threshold above which the electronic bill can be made mandatory.
