The Goods and Services (GST) Council agreed on the fitment of almost every commodity in the various tax slabs under the new tax regime, which will be rolled out on July 1.
Milk, cereals (unpackaged and unbranded), and jaggery will be exempt from GST, while sugar, tea, coffee (except instant), and edible oil will be taxed at 5%. Everyday use items such as soap, toothpaste, and hair oil will be taxed at 18%.
However, there are 83 services that will remain unaffected by GST. Education, health care, local train and two-tier travel tickets will remain unchanged. A marginal fall in prices will be witnessed by goods transport, travel in AC rail coaches, economy class air tickets, cab aggregators etc.
Cinema tickets will have a sharp fall by 28%.
Telecom and financial services will be charged at a high of 18%. Betting at race clubs to go up by 28%.
Coal, which is currently taxed at 11.7%, will attract a GST rate of 5%.
Consumer durables will come under the 28% tax bracket, down from the current 30-32% rate. Capital and industrial goods will be taxed at 18%.
Small petrol and diesel cars will be taxed at 28%, small petrol cars at 1% and small diesel cars 3%. Luxury cars will attract a 15% cess in addition to 28% GST, sources said.
“There are 1,211 items in the four digit code that exist now… fitment needs to be done for all,” Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said during a press conference earlier on Thursday. “We discussed and approved these items today. There are six categories [of items] that need more discussion. These will be taken up tomorrow [Friday].”
