14th GST Council Meeting at SKICC today

Currently, there are 17 items in the negative list of services on which service tax is not levied.

The meeting of the Fitment Committee and preparatory meeting of the officers was convened at SKICC here today in this regard.

Earlier in the day, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac who is a member of the GST Council had said that services will also attract a four-tier tax slab similar to goods that are being taxed at 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. Tax slabs have been decided for about 80 per cent of items, though decision regarding contentious items like motor vehicles, beedi, coconut oil will be taken up for discussion in the Council's meeting, an official said. On top of that there are over 60 services, like religious pilgrimage, healthcare, education, skill development, journalistic activities, which are exempt from service tax. The compensation would be met through levy of a "GST Compensation Cess" on luxury items and sin goods like tobacco, for the first five years.

As the government inches closer towards the rollout of the country's biggest indirect tax reform, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council headed by Finance Ministry Arun Jaitley is likely to finalise the rates that various goods and services will attract from July 1.

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While the GST Council has agreed to subsume several taxes, including central excise, state VAT, service tax, central sales tax and octroi, it has kept around a third of state revenues outside the GST ambit.

The final rates are expected to be fixed in a way such that the impact on inflation as well as revenue to the government is near neutral.

The cess on luxury goods have been capped at 15 percent.

Jaitley had earlier this month expressed confidence of the GST Council arriving at tax rates in the May 18-19 meeting.

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