GST Council meet: Mobile phones become costlier by 6%

New Delhi: The GST Council on Saturday decided to increase GST rates on mobile phones to 18 per cent from 12 per cent with effect from April 1, Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

The Council also decided to slash GST on Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft to 5 per cent from 12 per cent while the tax rate on handmade and machine-made matchsticks has been rationalised to 12 per cent.

The Council in its meeting chaired by the Union Finance minister decided to waive the late fee for delayed filing of annual returns for FY2018, FY2019 by entities with a turnover of less than Rs 2 crore.

The minister also said interest will be levied on net tax liability from July 1 for delayed GST payments.

Sitharaman said the GST Council has asked Infosys to deploy more skilled manpower, increase the capacity of hardware of GST Network to ensure that the system is glitch-free.

The Council has asked Infosys, which has designed the GSTN, to provide a better groomed GSTN system by July 2020, she added. With agency inputs