New Delhi, Jul 17: Customers will have to shell out more for household items, bank services, hospitals and hotels from tomorrow with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council’s decision scheduled to come into force.
From Monday, July 18, the prices of several essential commodities and services are going to increase, including pre-packed, labelled food items and hospital rooms.
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The decision was taken last month at the 47th GST meeting chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising her state counterparts, where they pruned the exemption list and imposed tax on a host of goods and services. The Council, based on an interim report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation, had also removed duty inversion for goods where the taxes on inputs were higher than those on the output.
List of items that are becoming more expensive from Monday:
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Customers will have to pay 5 per cent GST on pre-packed, labelled food items like atta, paneer and curd, besides hospital rooms with rent above Rs 5,000.
In addition, hotel rooms with tariff of up to Rs 1,000/day, maps and charts, including atlases, will attract a 12 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) A total of 18 per cent GST will be levied on tetra packs and fees charged by banks for the issue of cheques (loose or in book form).
Tax rates on products such as printing, writing or drawing ink; knives with cutting blades, paper knives and pencil sharpeners; LED lamps; drawing and marking out instruments will be hiked to 18 per cent on Monday, from 12 per cent currently, to correct the inverted duty anomaly.
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Solar water heater will now attract 12 per cent GST as compared to 5 per cent earlier.
Some services such as work contracts for roads, bridges, railways, metro, effluent treatment plants and crematoriums too will see tax going up to 18 per cent from the current 12 per cent.
Services rendered by regulators such as RBI, IRDA and SEBI will be taxed at 18 per cent and so will be renting of a residential dwelling to business entities.
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Bio-medical waste treatment facilities shall attract 12 per cent GST, while non-ICU hospital rooms exceeding Rs 5,000/day will be levied 5 per cent GST, without input tax credit, to the extent of the amount charged for the room.
Besides, individuals will only be able to claim GST exemption for training or coaching in recreational activities relating to arts or culture or sports.
Jammu and Kashmir has recorded 12 percent growth in GST revenue collection for the month of November, 2022 compared to the same month last year, against the National average of 8%, as per the figures released by the Union Ministry of Finance.
Speaking about this development, Additional Commissioner State Taxes Department Kashmir, Shakeel Maqbool, stated that Kashmir Division has achieved a growth of 18.32% in GST collections and the uptick in the tax collection is due to tax collection made on sales within the UT of J&K as well as due to the import purchase into J&K from the rest of the country.
He further added that the reasons for the buoyancy in the GST collection are the several measures taken up by the government, the e- infrastructure in place and usage of the data analytics besides the compliance by the taxpayers.
The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, a federal legislative body, has approved a regulatory framework that legalizes the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method, but the passing of the bill does not make any cryptocurrencies legal tender within the country.
While this makes significant progress for crypto within Brazil, the law still requires the signature of the president of Brazil for it to be enacted.
In addition to allowing crypto as a payment method, the law enables the creation of licenses for crypto exchange platforms and for custody and management of crypto by third parties.
Srinagar, Sept 09: Bitcoin surged past the USD 20,000 barrier and was eyeing its best day in six weeks on Friday as the US dollar fell broadly and markets found reasons to be cheerful at the end of a dour week, Reuters reported.
Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market value, rose more than 7 per cent to USD 20,796, a two-week high. Ether, the second-biggest, rose 5 per cent to also hit a two-week peak at USD 1,717. Bitcoin had been as low as USD 18,540 on Wednesday.
Market participants said there was no particular trigger for the gains beyond a broad upbeat mood in evidence across asset classes on Friday, led by a drop in the safe-haven dollar and a rally in Chinese stocks.
If the cryptocurrencies can hold their gains until Sunday’s close, Bitcoin could log a second weekly rise in a row, and its best week in about a month. read more
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Ether’s weekend volatility may be heightened by a looming software upgrade known as the “merge”, due sometime between Sept. 10 and 20, with the exact timing uncertain.
The shift will radically change how transactions are processed and is supposed to slash energy consumption. Some exchanges plan to pause deposits and withdrawals while the upgrade occurs.