Gold to get costlier, footwear to become cheap with GST

New Delhi: GST Council on Saturday fixed a lower price for biscuits, footwear and low-priced garments, coming into effect on July 1. However, gold, gold jewellery and branded packaged food items will count under high tax category and will get costlier.

Fabric has been put in 5% tax category and will be taxed accordingly. In order to track the black money, rough diamonds will be taxed at 0.25 percent under GST. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said states are ready to implement the GST from July 1, DC reported.

To lower tax rates of some essential goods, which were fixed in earlier meetings, GST Council will meet again on June 11 to look at the representations of the trade bodies.

A panel will go through the proposals submitted by the trade and industry representatives at the next meeting of GST. The Council will also decide tax rate for the lottery.