GST Slab Rates: Which items fall under the 12% rate that council may remove?

The GST Council is likely to soon consider the slabs of the goods and service tax. As per a new report, the Council may reduce the GST slabs from four to three, doing away with the 12 per cent GST rate.

As per the report by Hindustan Times, citing people with knowledge of the matter, officials and experts advising the Group of Ministers (GoM) over rate rationalisation have reached a “near consensus” that the current 12 per cent tax slab does not hold much relevance now.

“This could be the most plausible way to undertake a revenue neutral tax rate rationalisation exercise. However, the GST Council has to take a final call,” HT reported quoting the sources.

Most Union and state government officials, experts and GoM representative have supported the proposal to remove the 12 per cent GST slab, the report said.

If the slab is removed and a rate rationalisation is done, the items falling under the 12 per cent slab will either be moved to the 5 per cent or 18 per cent category.

Presently, there are four tax slabs under the GST regime in India – 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent. Here are the items that are placed under 12 per cent GST slab.

Here are some of the items and services that are taxed at 12 per cent GST:

Goods falling under 12 per cent GST slab: Butter, ghee, processed food, almonds, mobiles, fruit juice, preparations of vegetables, fruits, nuts or other parts of plants including pickle murabba, chutney, jam, jelly, packed coconut water, umbrella and more.

Services falling under 12 per cent GST slab: Hotel accommodations (up to ₹7,500 oer night tariff), passenger transport by air in non-economy classes, certain construction works, some multimodal transport services, and certain professional works.

Will items under 12 per cent GST slab get cheaper or dearer?

Some of the items are likely to be placed under 5 per cent GST slab, while other will be moved up to the 18 per cent category, if the report is to be believed. However, it is not known yet which item or service will be placed in which slab. It will only be known after the GST Council takes a final decision regarding the matter.

The GST Council is expected to meet either in June or July.

Source: Livemint