Last Thursday (18 may, 2017), GST council finalized tax rates on almost 80% TO 90% OF the goods and services. The meeting was headed by Mr. Arun Jaitely (Union Finance Minister) and was attended by the representatives of all states.
Total 7 set of rules were approved and will be rolled out from 1st July, 2017.
Here are the main highlights of the GST council meeting:
All goods and services are kept under four brackets that are 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.
14% of total items are placed under 5% slab contains daily used items.
17% items kept under 12% slab
43% total items are under 18% slab
19% are under 28% slab
7 central taxes and 9 state level taxes will be replaced by the GST and GST rates for total 1205 items out of 1211 are final now. Tax rates for rest six items which are footwear, gold, bio-diesel, beedi and cigarettes, textiles and agriculture will be made final in the next meeting of the GST council which is scheduled on 3rd June, 2017.
More facts about Goods and Services Tax (GST)
GST is considered as the biggest move by the Indian Government since 1947. It will merge all individual taxes into one uniform tax.
It is already used by many countries like UK, France, Italy, South Korea, Canada, Japan and Australia. France was the country which used it first in 1954.
Visit this for more details on GST: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goods_and_Services_Tax_(India)
