Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha said there is no VAT on withdrawing cash from banks.
There is no GST on cash withdrawals from banks, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha and GST only on bank checks buying, she added.
All states on the GST council voted in favor of the proposal to levy 5 percent GST on prepackaged, labeled foods, and no one spoke out against that proposal, the Treasury Secretary said. She added that there was no GST on hospital beds or ICU (intensive care), and the tax was only on rooms with Rs 5000 per day rent.
Food consumption by the poor is not taxed, said Ms Sitharaman, explaining that the 5 percent GST levy applied only to prepackaged, labeled items and not to items sold in bulk. Each state taxed some or other foods such as grains, legumes, curds, lassi and buttermilk, said the Treasury Secretary, who defended GST’s levy on foods. She added that there is no GST on crematoriums and tax is only levied on the construction of a new crematorium.
Responding to a debate on inflation in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said we are now at 7 percent inflation due to some effort by the RBI and the government, referring to runaway inflation in other countries. She said we are not saying there is no inflation, and no one is denying the price increase.
The government has adopted a targeted approach, based on ground-level input, to tackle retail inflation, which is around 7 percent, Ms Sitharaman said in response to the price hike debate. She said India’s economy is much better than the country’s peer group and some developed economies.