Beginning on Monday, July 18, customers would be required to pay 5 percent GST on pre-packaged, labelled foods including atta, paneer, and curd, besides hospital rooms with rent exceeding Rs 5,000.
In addition, a 12 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) would be applied to hotel rooms costing up to Rs 1,000 per day, maps, charts, and atlases, while an 18 percent GST will be applied to tetra packs and fees made by banks for the issuance of checks (loose or in book form).
The GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and made up of her state equivalents, had last month reduced the list of exempt items and services and added tax on a variety of other goods and services. Based on an interim rate rationalisation report from the Group of Ministers (GoM), the Council also eliminated duty inversion for commodities where input taxes were higher than output taxes.
To remedy the inverted duty anomaly, tax rates on items including printing, writing, or drawing ink, knives with cutting blades, paper knives, and pencil sharpeners, LED lamps, and drawing and marking out tools would be raised to 18 percent on Monday from the present rate of 12 percent. Besides, the GST on solar water heaters has increased from 5 percent to 12 percent. The present tax rate of 12 percent will increase to 18 percent for several services, such as work contracts for roads, bridges, trains, metro, effluent treatment facilities, and crematoriums.
In addition, from July 18 onward, taxes on ostomy appliances and the transportation of goods and people by ropeways will be reduced from 12 to 5 percent. Renting a truck or goods carriage that includes fuel costs will now be charged at a lower rate of 12 percent as opposed to 18 percent. Only economy class flights to and from Bagdogra and the northeastern states will be exempt from the sales tax (GST).
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