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.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, Bitcoin (BTC), rose to levels not seen since May 2022 on Friday, the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, amid calm trading in traditional markets, CoinDesk reported.
The price of the cryptocurrency dropped to levels around $37,800 after momentarily touching $38,000 earlier on Friday morning. Now that it has remained over the $38,000 barrier for a few hours, Bitcoin looks like it is trying to move higher.
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The uptick in price comes as investors are expecting a possible approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
“With the BTC ETF lurking around the corner – which may be Jan .11 for the 14b1 consent (not s1 approval) there will be a new layer of volatility to the market,” Laurent Kssis was quoted as saying by CoinDesk.
“Due to the ease of trade and cost-effectiveness, a bitcoin ETF will attract more turnover in volumes from institutional investors currently not seen on crypto exchanges as they are not allowed to execute on these non-regulated exchanges by their compliance depts,” explained Kssis.
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Kssis predicts that bitcoin could rally to $40,000 over the weekend.
“When approved, the volatility of BTC will be significant during these periods which create additional risks for investors but as well opportunities for those arbitraging. Would not be surprised if we see 40K being broken this weekend,” Kssis said.
Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market value, also gained over 3% on Friday.
MATIC has witnessed a notable price resurgence, surging from $0.503 to a high of $0.927 in the past month—an impressive 84% increase, ranking it among the top gainers on CoinMarketCap.
IntoTheBlock reports a significant uptick in institutional and whale demand across the crypto sector. Notably, Polygon’s scaling solution experienced a 3,800% surge in large transactions (over $100,000) last month, contributing significantly to MATIC’s climb above $0.90 for the first time since May.
With a market cap of $8.2 billion, MATIC now holds the 13th position among cryptocurrencies. Despite this bullish trend, investors should exercise caution, considering the proximity to the July 13 wick levels, potentially indicating a formation of a double-top pattern on the daily chart, a signal of a possible trend reversal.
From an on-chain perspective, the bulls appear to be firmly in control of the Bitcoin markets in November so far. If the miners keep accumulating, the BTC price is like to reclaim the $40,000 in the weeks ahead.
The Global In/Out of the Money (GIOM) data, which groups the current BTC holders according to their entry prices, also confirms this bullish forecast.
It shows that BTC must scale the $38,600 resistance for the bulls to be confident of flipping $40,000. As depicted below, 624,090 holders had bought 309,880 BTC at an average price of $38,612. If those holders sell early, they could slow down the rally significantly.
But if that resistance level caves, Bitcoin price will likely reclaim $40,000 as predicted.
On the downside, the bears could negate the optimistic prediction if the BTC price reverses below $33,000.
But, in that case, the 2 million BTC holders who bought 604,200 BTC at the minimum price of $33,900 will mount a support wall. If those investors can HODL, BTC price will likely defend the $34,000 territory and prevent a significant bearish reversal.