GST rejig: Tax rate on 178 daily items reduced to 18% from 28%

GUWAHATI: In the most significant GST rejig yet, tax rates on over 200 items, ranging from chewing gum to chocolates, to beauty products, wigs and wrist watches, were on Friday cut to provide relief to consumers and businesses amid the economic slowdown.

As many as 178 items of daily use were shifted from the top tax bracket of 28 percent to 18 percent, while a uniform 5 per cent tax was prescribed for all restaurants, both air-conditioned and non-ac, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said after the GST Council meeting here.

Currently, 12 per cent GST on food bill is levied in non-ac restaurants and 18 per cent in air-conditioned ones.

All these got input tax credit, a facility to set off tax paid on inputs with final tax.

Jaitley said the restaurants, however, did not pass on the input tax credit (ITC) to customers and so the ITC facility is being withdrawn, and a uniform 5 percent tax is levied on all restaurants without the distinction of AC or non-ac.

Restaurants in starred-hotels that charge Rs 7,500 or more per day room tariff will be levied 18 per cent GST, but ITC is allowed for them. Those restaurants in hotels charging less than Rs 7,500 room tariff will charge 5 per cent GST but will not get ITC.

The all-powerful GST Council pruned the list of items in the top 28 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) slab to just 50 from current 228. So, only luxury and sins goods are now only in the highest tax bracket, and items of daily use are shifted to 18 per cent.

Also, tax on wet grinders and armoured vehicles was cut from 28 per cent to 12 per cent, he said, adding the tax rate on six items was reduced from 18 per cent to 5 per cent, on 8 items from 12 per cent to 5 per cent and six items from 5 per cent to nil. Chewing gum, chocolates, coffee, custard powder, marble and granite, dental hygiene products, polishes and creams, sanitary ware, leather clothing, artificial fur, wigs, cookers, stoves, after-shave, deodorant, detergent and washing powder, razors and blades, cutlery, storage water heater, batteries, goggles, wrist watches and mattress are among the products on which tax rate has been cut from 28 per cent to 18 per cent.

The top tax rate is now restricted to luxury and demerit goods like pan masala, aerated water and beverages, cigars and cigarettes, tobacco products, cement, paints, perfumes, AC, dishwashing machine, washing machine, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, cars and two-wheelers, aircraft and yacht.

The cut in tax will cost Rs 20,000 crore in revenues annually, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said.

“As part of efforts to rationalise GST structure, the Council has been reviewing rates from time to time. In the last three meetings, we have been systematically looking at 28 per cent tax bracket and rationalising certain items out of that bracket into lesser categories, mostly 18 per cent or even less,” Jaitley said.

GST tax slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent were decided to go by the principle of fitting each item into a category most close to cumulative pre-gst taxes.