by admin | May 25, 2021 | Commodities, Commodities News, Economy, Markets, News
New Delhi : In a relief for common man, the GST Council on Saturday reduced tax rates on over 50 items including refrigerators, washing machines and small televisions, which would now be taxed at 18 per cent, down from the current 28 per cent.
Apart of bringing down rates, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council also exempted GST on sanitary napkins, rakhis, fortified milk and idols of deities made of stone, marble and wood.
The changes would come into effect across the country from July 27 onward, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal told media after the 28th meeting of the GST Council.
“Refrigerators, small televisions, of upto 25 inches, lithium ion batteries, vacuum cleaners, domestic electrical appliances, such as food grinders, mixers….storage water heaters, immersion heaters, hair dryers, hand driers, electric smoothing irons,” among others have been brought to the 18 per cent slab,” Goyal said.
The council also gave a major relief to the hotel industry by providing that tax rate shall be based on transaction value instead of declared tariff.
Earlier, there was a lack of clarity on the issue causing a lot of trouble for consumers booking hotels with ‘declared tariffs’ of Rs 7,500 and above which incurred 28 per cent GST.
While hotels with tariff below Rs 1,000 are exempted from GST, those with tariff between Rs 1,000-2,500 are taxed at 12 per cent, those between Rs 2,500-7,500 at 18 per cent, and above Rs 7,500 at 28 per cent.
However, it often happened that hotels offered discounts and hence the actual transaction cost would be much lower than the declared cost, but tax would still be charged at the declared cost.
Another significant decision the council made was regarding easing of return filing procedure by approving two new simplified forms called ‘Sugam’ and ‘Sahaj’, the minister said.
Also, enterprises with annual turnover of upto Rs 5 crore would have to file quarterly returns instead of the current monthly filing, although they would continue to pay tax on a monthly basis.
However, the implementation of the revamped return filing process would take some time as corresponding changes would have to be made into the GST network, the minister clarified.
The council also deferred the implementation of reverse charge mechanism by another year and now it will come into force from October next year.
The minister further informed that the council would have a special meeting on August 4 to address concern of small and medium enterprises.
Among other tax-reduction decisions, Goyal said, tax rate on handicraft items such as handbags, pouches and purses, jewellery box, wooden frames of paintings and photographs among others have been brought under the 12 per cent slab, from 18 per cent.
GST on handmade carpets and handmade textile floor coverings has been reduced from 12 per cent to 5 per cent.
The tax rate on ethanol, which is used in the blending of petrol and diesel also has been brought down to 5 per cent from 18 per cent.
During the meeting, the council also made certain amendments to the GST Act including raising the upper limit of turnover for opting for composition scheme from Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore.
It also approved an amendment which will enable taxpayers to opt for multiple registrations within a state in respect of multiple places of business located within the same state.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, News, Politics
Srinagar : Jammu and Kashmir has directed cable television operators to stop airing 30 television channels, including controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s Peace TV, among several others that originate from Pakistan.
Sources said the decision was taken by Governor N.N. Vohra after the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting took up the issue with the state government.
In a letter written to all District Magistrates, the state Home Department on Tuesday directed them to act against transmission of “these channels as they have the potential to encourage violence and disturb the law and order situation”.
Among others, the channels ordered to be taken off the cable television platform are GEO TV, Peace TV, ARY TV, QTV and ABB TAKK TV.
Tanvir Ahmed, a cable operator in the old city area, said: “With this order in place, we will have to off-load our staff. This could finally close our business.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Large Enterprise
By Porisma P. Gogoi,
New Delhi : Aside from the fact that a host of products like television sets, imported mobile phones and LED lamps are going to become expensive with a hike in their basic customs duty, industry stakeholders are hopeful that the government’s move will wash out the unorganised players in the consumer durables goods segment.
“Rise in import duty will surely impact players who were sourcing and importing large percentage of their LED lamp requirements. This will also impact the unorganised or unbranded segment which was importing cheap LED lamps and products from China,” Puneet Dhawan, Senior Vice President and Business Head, Lighting, Orient Electric, told IANS.
Dhawan claimed that his company has indigenised manufacturing of more than 95 per cent products and will have practically no impact due to the duty hike.
On November 15, the Finance Ministry increased the basic customs duty on a host of products, including electronic items like mobile phones and televisions, to curb surging imports — making them more expensive — and also to give a boost to the ‘Make in India’ programme.
According to a government notification, the customs duty on mobile phones has been hiked to 15 per cent, TV sets and microwaves to 20 per cent, video cameras to 15 per cent and LED lamps to 20 per cent.
Withdrawing the exemption of basic customs duty on LCD, LED and OLED panels, which are used in TV manufacture, the government has imposed a 7.5 per cent duty.
“Many temporary players that are there in the market will suffer a setback. It will be a kind of wash-out for them because it will be very difficult for them to survive without inputs,” said Riya Kabra, General Manager Commercials, Truvison, a Europe-based consumer electronics and appliances company.
Truvison, which entered the domestic market in 2016, offers a range of consumer durables like LED TVs, music systems and home appliances like air conditioners.
Kabra predicted that the surge in prices will be temporary and will soon stabilise.
“For us, the impact will be mild and short term. We had already anticipated this hike for the ‘Make in India’ concept. There would be a price hike definitely but that would be short term. By second quarter the prices will stabilise,” Kabra told IANS.
Manmohan Ganesh, Chief Operating Officer, BPL, said that with the support of the government for domestic production, the industry will mature with more manufacturers available for critical parts and will curb imports.
“There used to be a time when we produced everything in-house. We were actually at a disadvantage when the government policies changed and allowed free or easy imports of these products. The government also signed free-trade agreements wih some countries and products also came in cheap. It did not make sense to manufacture a lot of products (domestically),” Ganesh told IANS.
“Now with some amount of support to local manufacturers, we will also internally decide what more products we want to make locally,” he added.
Ganesh further said: “We never had the scale or the opportunity because parts were not usually available. So even when we made a product, we were still dependent on international sources for certain critical components.”
He expects the industry to mature further and critical parts to be manufactured in the country.
Regarding the hike of product prices, Dhawan said: “As far as hike in prices are concerned, this will surely lead to pressure on these (unorganised) players as with the current market dynamics they will find it increasingly difficult to pass the hike on to the consumers and perhaps would have to absorb most of it.”
Ganesh added that unless the GST rates on televisions are brought down, there will be an impact on the prices for the entire industry, which in turn would affect sales.
“At the moment, so long as there is no reduction in the GST rate, the prices will go up and there could be some impact on sales. I do not believe it (the impact) will be large, since it will impact the entire industry,” Ganesha said.
“When costs go up for a certain brand, that brand sale may come down. But if the whole industry, every manufacturer, takes the prices up, it does not mean that the customers will stop buying televisions or other appliances,” he added.
(Porisma P. Gogoi can be contacted at porisma.g@ians.in)
—IANS
