Mobile Phone Sales to Be Hit, Say Industry Experts, as GST Hike Makes Them More Costly

With the GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, increasing the GST on mobile phones from 12 percent to 18 percent on Saturday, industry experts feel it would hit the industry and the consumers hard.

The GST Council on Saturday decided to increase GST rates on mobile phones to 18 percent from 12 percent with effect from April 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said

Among other decisions, the council rationalised the GST rates on handmade and machine-made matchsticks to 12 per cent

According to Mumbai-based industry body IBJA or India Bullion and Jewellers Association, the indicative selling price of gold jewellery stood at Rs 43,520 per 10 grams (excluding GST) in the first half of the day.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against Deepak Pandit, an Assistant Commissioner of Goods and Service Tax and Central Excise, on corruption charges for amassing assets worth over Rs 3.96 crore which are 376 per cent above his known sources of income, officials said on Friday.

The GST Council, led by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, had in December last year decided to increase the rate as well as implement a single rate for lotteries. Buyers of tickets for lotteries would now have to shell out 28 per cent.

An employee of the GST Bhavan showed immense courage and patriotism when he climbed nine floors of the fire-hit building on Monday to save the national tricolour from being burnt.

A fire broke out on the eighth floor of a government building in Mumbai's Mazgaon today. In visuals, black smoke is seen billowing out from the windows of the GST Bhavan. Firefighters said no one was injured or trapped.

"In GST, when you have come to certain level or grade, periodically changing it leads to inversion problems, refund issues and so on. So, therefore, when one item's rate of taxation is brought down, a lot of other ripple effects are created, and with that, either the refund gets affected, or businesses rightly feel they cannot plan how much they have to keep aside for...

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the Central government is plugging the loopholes in the Good and Services Tax (GST) with the use of technology and is working towards eight per cent growth rate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attacked the Congress for the delay in implementation of the Goods and Services Tax or GST, saying that it was only after he took office that the outstanding issues were resolved, paving the way for the rollout of the unified tax regime.

The monumental blunder of demonetisation, a flawed GST and putting the squeeze on banks were the three major errors committed by the government that sent the economy into a tailspin, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said today.

GST reduction and incentive based scrappage policy are the need of the hour, but all indirect benefits should curb liquidity crisis and uplift general customers' sentiment.

In the 2020 Budget session Government has announced handholding support to the auto component industry for technological upgradation, R&D support and strategy planning.