Cement price raised due to change in GST rates: Dharmani

Town and Country Planning Minister Rajesh Dharmani today supported the state government’s decision to increase the price of cement by Rs 5i per bag and said that it was necessary to enhance the rates as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rationalisation had hit the state. “The state is already suffering the brunt of disasters and has suffered a direct loss of around Rs 1,000 crore due to decrease in the tax rates by the GST Council,” he added.

The minister said that during the Value Added Tax (VAT) regime, the state revenue was growing at around 16 per cent prior to the introduction of the GST. “After June 2017, the revenue has fallen to mere 7 per cent to 8 per cent after the GST rationalisation,” he claimed.

He said that the reduction in the GST slabs would benefit big states where consumption was more but states like Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and northeastern states would be hit. “Himachal doesn’t have enough resources. The decision of the GST Council to reduce the tax rates from 28 per cent to 18 per cent on cement has aggravated the financial problems of the state,” he claimed.

He said the state had suffered a direct loss of around Rs 1,000 crore following the GST Council meet, and the government had enhanced the rate of a cement bag by merely Rs 5.