HT Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept 4: Deputy Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Chowna Mein recently attended the 56th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council in New Delhi, where Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced sweeping reforms to simplify India’s indirect tax regime and bring relief to households, farmers, industries and businesses.
According to an official statement, the meeting was chaired by Finance Minister Sitharaman in the presence of Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary.
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It was attended by Chief Ministers of Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya and Odisha, Deputy Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, the Governor of Manipur, and Finance Ministers of several States and Union Territories, along with senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.
The Council’s deliberations centred on rationalising tax rates, simplifying compliance and correcting inverted duty structures.
Briefing the media after the meeting, Sitharaman announced that the new rates will come into effect from September 22, describing the package as India’s next-generation GST reforms.
She informed that GST on common household items such as hair oil, soaps, shampoos, toothbrushes, toothpaste, bicycles, kitchenware and other essential articles has been reduced from 12 or 18 percent to 5 percent, while ultra-high temperature milk, paneer, chhena and all Indian breads have been brought under the nil rate.
Food items including namkeen, sauces, noodles, chocolates, coffee, cornflakes, butter and ghee will now attract only 5 percent GST instead of the earlier higher slabs.
Consumer durables like air-conditioners, televisions and dishwashing machines have been reduced from 28 percent to 18 percent.
For the agriculture sector, all equipment has been brought down to 5 percent from 12 percent.
In the automotive sector, small cars and motorcycles up to 350 cc have been lowered to 18 percent from 28 percent, and the same rate will apply to buses, trucks, ambulances, three-wheelers and all auto parts.
The health sector too has received major relief with thirty-three life-saving drugs fully exempted from GST, while three critical medicines used for cancer, rare and chronic diseases have also been moved from 5 percent to nil.
Several other medicines have been reduced from 12 percent to 5 percent.
In the insurance sector, all individual life and health insurance policies, including reinsurance, family floater schemes and senior citizen policies, will now be fully exempt from GST.
The Finance Minister emphasised that the reforms have been strongly supported by labour-intensive industries and widely welcomed by the agriculture sector.
She noted that the measures are designed to ease the burden on citizens, reduce costs for businesses, and strengthen the stability and predictability of the GST regime while ensuring that benefits reach the people at the earliest.
Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein expressed satisfaction with the outcome and said that the decisions taken under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reflect the government’s strong commitment to ease of living for citizens, ease of doing business for enterprises and long-term growth for the economy.
He added that the reforms will benefit farmers, MSMEs, the middle class, women and youth alike, and assured that Arunachal Pradesh will continue to play a proactive role in ensuring that these benefits reach every section of society.
The 56th GST Council meeting has been described in the official release as a landmark step in India’s economic journey, aligning with the vision of Viksit Bharat by delivering a simplified, transparent and growth-oriented taxation system.
