GST Rate Cut: What Became Cheaper after 31st GST Council Meeting?

After facing relentless opposition, criticism and allegations, Narendra Modi pursued his dream to implement GST and it did fared well. The constant revision, amendments and updates further helped the government in improving the income tax collections. Now, with one more update around the corner, let’s have a look at the decision of GST Rate cut by the GST council and which industries will benefit.

GST Rate Cut – Council Updates

The finance minister, Arun Jaitley has slashed down the prices of TV, cinema tickets and video games. Here’s a detailed look at what all changed.

GST rate reduction of goods that attracted GST rate of 28% will now come under the tax bracket of 18%

• The goods like pulleys, transmission shafts, gear boxes, cranks
• Monitors and TV screen upto 32 inches
• Used Pneumatic tires
• Lithium ion battery
• Digital camera and video camera recorder
• Video game consoles and other items that fall under the category of the code HS 9504
• 28% to 5%-Parts and accessories of the carriages for the disabled persons
• GST rate reduction on goods from 18% to 12%-Cork, articles made from cork and agglomerated cork
• 18% to 5%- marble rubble
• 12% to 5%-natural cork, walking stick, Fly ash Blocks
• 12% to zero- music books
• 5% to zero- vegetables, frozen, branded and put in a unit container, vegetables provisionally preserved in a preservative but unsuitable for immediate consumption

Special deductions can be availed by the pilgrims when traveling on special flights as the GST Rate is lowered from 5% in the economy class and 12% for business class. Third party insurance has been brought down to 12%, IIM courses and bank charges are exempted. There will be no GST relief for 5- star hotels

Another decision made during the meeting was about a new return filing system that will be started on the experimental basis starting from April 1, and will be mandatorily implemented on July 1. Due date for GST annual returns and audit report will be extended till 30 June 2019.

Recommendations made during 31st Meeting of the #GST Council held on 22nd December, 2018 (New Delhi)-Rate changes#GSTCouncilMeet

Read here: https://t.co/3RPAi6hWlK pic.twitter.com/0KYcPyJ0ws

— PIB India (@PIB_India) December 22, 2018

So, can we call this GST rate reduction aftermath of polls or in simple words, is the government trying to build its vote bank ahead of electoral polls? Well, the mystery will be unfolded in the future, but for now, several industries have received impetus from the government including entertainment, renewable energy industry, and education industry.