16th GST council meet held; tax rates revised on 66 items

JIBRAN NAZIR

NEW DELHI: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Sunday revised the rates of 66 items from what was originally stated in the four-slab indiret tax structure.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley made the announcement after the council’s 16th meeting. Under the revised tax rates , insulin, school bags, printers and agarbattis are set to get cheaper.

” GST Council has reduced tax rates of 66 items as against representations received for 133 items. GST on insulin, agarbatti lowered to 5 per cent, school bags to attract tax of 28 per cent,” Jaitley said.

GST on movie tickets under Rs 100 has been slashed to 18 per cent, while tickets priced above Rs 100 will be taxed at 28 per cent tax, Jaitley said. The Council has also lowered tax rate on computer printers from 28 per cent to 18 per cent and on children’s drawing books to nil from 12 per cent

Kitchen use items like pickles, mustard sauce and morabba will attract 12 per cent GST , as against 18 per cent proposed earlier. Also, tax rates on cashew nuts have been cut to 5 per cent from 12 per cent.

The tax rate on sanitary napkins remains unchanged, Jaitley said.

The finance minister added that under the GST, traders, manufacturers and restaurants with turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh can avail the composition scheme, against Rs 50 lakh earlier.

Following the 15th meeting of the council here earlier this month, held to decide on the six remaining items, including gold and beedi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who heads the council, had said that a committee of officers would examine rate adjustments, if any, based on the representations received from different trade and industry associations. Their recommendations were taken up by the council on Sunday.The Council will next meet on June 18 and will take up lottery taxes and the e-way bill.