The government is considering cutting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on bicycles, 20 liter drinking water bottles and children's exercise notebooks. At the same time, it is planning to increase the tax on wrist watches and shoes by 10%. In this regard, a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) formed to simplify the GST structure was held on Saturday (October 19).
After this, suggestions for changing the tax on these five products were given to the GST Council. After the meeting, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, Chairman of the Group of Ministers, said that with this decision of the Group, the government expects an increase of Rs 22 thousand crore in GST revenue.
13% GST reduced on water bottles
- Bicycle – Suggestion to reduce GST from 12% to 5% on bicycles costing more than Rs 10,000.
- water bottle – Suggestion to reduce GST on 20 liter water bottle from 18% to 5%.
- Exercise Notebook – Suggestion to reduce GST on exercise notebooks for children from 12% to 5%.
- Wrist Watch – Suggestion to increase GST on wrist watches costing more than Rs 25,000 from 18% to 28%.
- Shoes – Suggestion to increase GST on shoes costing more than Rs 15,000 from 18% to 28%.
GST collection shows the health of the economy
It has been 8 years since the GST system was implemented. GST collection is an indicator of the overall health of the economy. On the GST collection figures for the month of April, KPMG National Head Abhishek Jain said that the highest GST collection so far reflects the strong domestic economy.
GST was implemented in 2017
The government implemented GST across the country on July 1, 2017. After this, 17 taxes and 13 cesses of the Central and State Governments were removed. On completion of 7 years of GST, the Finance Ministry posted about the achievements made during the last seven years.
GST is an indirect tax. It was implemented in 2017 to replace a variety of previous indirect taxes (VAT), service tax, purchase tax, excise duty and many other indirect taxes. GST has four slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28%.
Graphics Source: VaskarAssets
