28th Meeting of GST Council: GST on sanitary napkin removed
In the 28th meeting of GST Council headed by Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, several major decisions were taken. During the meeting, the Council has removed Sanitary Napkin from the realm of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
GST Council decisions on sanitary napkins gave women great relief. Earlier, the sanitary napkin was included in the 12 percent GST slab. But this decision was being criticized for a long time and many women organizations expressed displeasure over it.
At the same time Maharashtra’s Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar told that the bamboo has been placed in the tax slab of 12 per cent. Apart from this, he claimed that Cess on sugar can be decided in the next meeting. The next meeting of GST Council is due in Kerala.
This is the first meeting of GST Council under the chairmanship of Piyush Goyal, after assuming charge of the Finance Minister. In the meeting, setting up of a National Appellate Tribunal in Delhi can be considered.
Two big changes already done in the GST rate
In the meeting of November 2017, 213 items were removed from the maximum GST slab and included in 18% slab. Finished tax on 6 items included in 5% GST scope. Except for Five Star Hotel’s restaurants, GST has been reduced from 18% to 5% on all the other hotels. In January 2018, tax on 54 services and 29 items was reduced.
In 2017-18, GST collection was 7.41 lakh crore rupees. The average monthly collection was 89,885 crores. Collection records reached 1.03 lakh crore in April this year, but declined to Rs 94,016 crore in May and Rs 95,610 crore in June.
