The GST Council will meet for 31st time on Saturday. The council, chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising his state counterparts, has pruned the 28 per cent slab by cutting tax rates on 191 goods over the last one-and-a-half year, leaving only 35 items in the highest slab.
Products that could become more affordable include computer screns, power banks, UPS, Tyre, digital cameras, washing machines, and water heaters.
At present, all above mentioned items are under 28% tax slab, it's been expected that they cam come under 18% tax slab.
There were around 226 goods in the 28 per cent category, when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented on July 1, 2017.
In its July meeting, the GST Council had further rationalised the 28 per cent slab by cutting rates on paints and varnishes, and on daily-use items like perfumes, cosmetics, toiletries, hair dryers, shavers, mixer grinder, vacuum cleaners, lithium ion batteries, and cut rates to 18 per cent.
Earlier in a blog post, Arun Jaitley had said that the 28% category of goods in under the goods and services tax (GST) is being phased out and the bracket currently covers mostly luxury items or sin goods. The tax on other items outside the luxury-sin goods such as cement, air-conditioners, large screen televisions and a handful of others could also be reduced as revenues rise.
“Thus within a record period of thirteen months, the GST Council has almost phased out the 28% category. It is only a matter of time that the final obituary of the ‘Congress Legacy Tax’ is written. Only the luxury-sin tax would remain,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post. The past one year has seen rate reduction in 384 commodities and not a single increase, Jaitley said, contrasting the GST regime that rolled out on July 1 last year with the indirect tax regime under Congress-led UPA rule.
(with inputs from PTI)
