Now, 5% GST on labelled food items

New Delhi: Customers will have to pay five per cent GST on pre-packed, labelled food items like atta, paneer and curd, besides hospital rooms with rent above Rs5,000 from Monday with the GST Council's decision coming into force.

In addition, hotel rooms with tariff of up to Rs1,000/day, maps and charts, including atlases, will attract a 12 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST), while 18 per cent GST will be levied on tetra packs and fees charged by banks for the issue of cheques (loose or in book form).

Last month, the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising her state counterparts, had pruned the exemption list and imposed tax on a host of goods and services.

The Council, based on an interim report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation, had also removed duty inversion for goods where the taxes on inputs were higher than those on the output. Tax rates on products such as printing, writing or drawing ink; knives with cutting blades, paper knives and pencil sharpeners; LED lamps; drawing and marking out instruments will be hiked to 18 per cent on Monday, from 12 per cent currently, to correct the inverted duty anomaly.

Also, solar water heater will now attract 12 per cent GST as compared to five per cent earlier. Some services such as work contracts for roads, bridges, railways, metro, effluent treatment plants and crematoriums too will see tax going up to 18 per cent from the current 12 per cent.