GST rates reduced on 400 goods & 80 services since 4 years: Finance Ministry

June 30: The Ministry of Finance on Wednesday marked the completion of four years of the GST regime and said that GST rates have been reduced on 400 goods and 80 services. Common-use items such as hair oil, toothpaste, and soap have seen their tax rates come down from 29.3% in the pre-GST era to just 18% under GST.

The Ministry of Finance tweeted that appliances such as fridges, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, food grinders and mixers, shavers, hair clippers, water heaters, hair dryers, electric smoothing irons, TVs (up to 32 inches) have all seen tax rates lowered from 31.3% to 18% due to GST. Further, the tax on cinema tickets, earlier anywhere between 35% to 110%, has been brought down to 12% (where ticket rate is up to Rs 100) and 18% in the GST regime.

Overall, GST rates have been reduced on 400 goods and 80 services. Given that, in the pre-GST regime, the combined Centre and States rates were more than 31% on most of the items; this reduction marks a significant relief for the taxpayer. #4yearsofGST
(1/8) pic.twitter.com/cQCaibTr4W

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) June 30, 2021

Most items of daily use are in the zero or 5% slab. The construction of residential complexes saw a steep reduction in rates to 5% in general and 1% for affordable houses. Restaurants were also brought down to 5%.

Substantial concessions have been extended to the agriculture sector in GST. On fertilisers, the net tax incidence was halved in GST. On agricultural machineries, the tax incidence has come down significantly from 15% / 18% to 12% and on certain items from about 8% to 5%.

The combined GST rates levied by the central and state governments on most of these goods and services were up to 31 per cent, which has now been cut. This is a big relief from the government for the taxpayers who are battling the Corona period. Apart from this, the Union Finance Ministry said that in the pre-GST system, the combined rates of the Center and the states on most items were reduced from 29.3 percent to 18 percent on items of daily use such as hair oil, toothpaste and soap under the GST.