Highlights of the 31st GST Council Meet

Source: TaxGuru

The 31^st GST Council Meet concluded on December 22^nd, 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. It was chaired by Finance Minister, Sh. Arun Jaitley along with other finance ministers of all states. Here are some takeaways from the latest Council Meet.

• Jan-Dhan Account holders are completely exempted from Goods and Services Tax.
• Only 8 items (luxury and sin items) have now been left in the 28% slab.
• Business class Air tickets have been brought into the 12 % slab while Economic class Air tickets are now brought under the 5% tax slab.
• Cinema tickets up to ₹ 100 brought down to 12% slab while tickets above ₹ 100 brought down to 18% from 28%.
• Accessories for carriages (wheelchairs and alike) for especially abled persons have now been brought under the 5% slab.
• Monitors and screen up to 32 inches, gearboxes, VCRs, retreated tires, power banks of lithium-ion batteries, video games and other sports items have now been reduced from 28% to 18%.

Some important announcements

• Reduction of the rate will come into effect from 1^st January 2019.
• Finance Minister Sh. Arun Jaitley has announced that the GST Council has agreed to set up Centralized Advance Ruling.
• Further, he said that “issues related to taxation on residential properties (real-estate) will be reviewed and discussed in next GST Council meet”.
• A separate composition scheme will be framed for low scale service suppliers and the threshold will be decided in the next meeting after consultation with law and fitment committee.

Missed the last GST Council Meet’s updates? Here are the Highlights of the 30^th GST Council meet.