GST reduced on plywood, farm implements

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 15

The state government has implemented all the decisions taken by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council in its 23rd meeting held at Guwahati on November 10 to reduce tax on plywood, scientific instruments and agriculture implements.

While stating this here today, Excise and Taxation Minister Capt Abhimanyu said that notifications had been issued in this regard.

He said that the plywood goods, on which the tax had been reduced, included plywood, veneered panels and laminated wood. Similarly, the scientific instruments on which tax had been reduced, include binoculars, monoculars, other optical telescopes and mountings, astronomical instruments and mountings but not instruments for radio-astronomy, photography other than cinematography cameras, photographic flashlight apparatus and flashbulbs other than discharge lamps, cinematographic cameras and projectors, whether or not incorporating sound recording or reproducing apparatus, image projectors other than cinematographic, photographic (other than cinematographic), enlargers and reducers.

He said that the other scientific instruments included apparatus and equipment for photographic (including cinematographic) laboratories, not specified or included elsewhere, negatoscopes, projection screens, compound optical microscopes, including those for photomicrography, cinematography or micro-projection, microscopes other than optical microscopes, diffraction apparatus, liquid crystal devices not constituting articles provided for more specifically in other headings, lasers, other than laser diodes, other optical appliances and instruments, not specified or included elsewhere, direction finding compasses, other navigational instruments and appliances, surveying (including photogrammetric surveying), hydrographic, oceanographic, hydrological, meteorological or geophysical instruments and appliances, excluding compasses and rangefinders.

He said that agriculture instruments on which tax has been reduced included parts of agricultural, horticultural or forestry machinery for soil preparation or cultivation; lawn or sports-ground rollers, harvesting or threshing machinery, including straw or fodder balers; grass or hay mowers; machines for cleaning, sorting or grading eggs, fruit or other agricultural produce.

More tax relief 

The minister said that tax had also been reduced on apparatus based on the use of X-rays or alpha, beta or gamma radiations, (other than those for medical, surgical, dental or veterinary uses), including radiography or radiography apparatus, X-ray tubes and other X-ray generators, high tension generators, control panels and desks, screens, examinations or treatment tables, chairs and the like, instruments, apparatus and models, designed for demonstrational purposes like in education or exhibition, unsuitable for other uses.