GST Council Meet Updates: Big Rate Cuts For Consumer Durables, Paints And Cosmetics; Sanitary Napkins Exempt
GST Council cuts tax rate on consumer durable items like washing machines, water coolers and refrigerators.
Watch: Assessing The Impact
Today's Changes Will Improve Compliance: Haryana FM
Haryana’s Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said the move to ask taxpayers with turnover up to Rs 5 crore to file returns only once a quarter will improve compliance. He added that the GST Council found it appropriate at the current juncture to experiment with rate changes since the revenue proceeds appear to be on track to reach set targets.
Major Step In Rationalising 28% Slab: Jaitley
The 28 percent GST slab has been narrowed down to only a few commodities now, says Union Minister Arun Jaitley.
Relief For Textile Industry
The textile industry will now be allowed to refund their unused input tax credits on account of the inverted duty structure. This will be applicable from July 27.
Assam FM Says Rate Cuts To Cost Rs 6,000 Crore Of Revenue
Himanta Biswa Sarma, finance minister of Assam, has said that reducing the rates of goods from 28 percent to 18 percent would result in a revenue loss of Rs 6,000 crore to the exchequer, as an initial estimate. But he added that in time greater demand would bring revenue buoyancy.
Positive Rate Rationalisations: EY's Abhishek Jain
The Council meeting was quite positive “with some very significant rate rationalisations”, said Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner at EY India. The tax rate cuts announced today would “bring lot of cheer to both end customers and industry players”, he said.
Quarterly GST return filing for taxpayers having turnover up to Rs 5 crore would significantly ease the compliances for this segment. Big relief for hotels as GST rate of 28 percent would not apply if the actual tariff value is less than Rs 7,500 even though the published tariff may be more than that. This will also ease the IT systems for hotel players. Reduction in GST rate of ethanol for use by oil companies to 5 percent is again welcome as major petroleum products are outside GST and this would help reduce their cost.Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, EY India
