Govt may regig 28 per cent GST slab

In a bid to give relief to certain sectors which are being adversely affected by the GST regime, the government may plan to remove items including cement, paint, movie tickets from 28 per cent tax slab.

The GST Council may review the Goods and Services Tax (GST) applicable on cement and paints, which are currently placed under 28 per cent slab, said news reports quoting government sources. There is buzz that cement, paints and certain white goods and automobile parts may be shifted to a lower tax slab of 18 per cent.

Next week, GST tax structure will celebrate its first anniversary. The move to rationalize the tax slabs comes after several requests from the cement industry and representation from the small-scale sector who have not been able to recover post the transition to GST regime.

In anticipation of this development, at lunch hours, prominent cement stocks were trading in the green zone with Ambuja Cements at Rs. 213.40 per share, up by 3.19 per cent, Ultratech Cement was at Rs. 3,842.50 per share, up by 2.46 per cent, India Cements was at Rs. 115.05 per share, up by 2.86 per cent, Ramco Cements was at Rs. 718.90 per share, up by 2.93 per cent on Tuesday.

While prominent paint stocks were witnessing an uptick during lunch hours. The stock of Asian Paints was trading at Rs. 1,264.80 per share, up by 0.86 per cent, Shalimar Paints was at Rs. 121.85 per share, up by 4.95 per cent, Berger Paints was at Rs. 283.50 per share, up by 1.12 per cent, Kansai Nerolac at Rs. 454.80 per share, down by 0.21 per cent. The benchmark index BSE Sensex was at 35,571.01, up 100.66 points or 0.28 per cent.