The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) released food Central Tax (Rate) notifications and one Compensation Cess (Rate) notification on 28th February 2023. These are the GST rate changes announced earlier at the 49th GST Council meeting on 18th February 2023. All these GST rate revisions shall apply from 1st March 2023.
Notification No. 04/2023-Central Tax (Rate) grants GST exemption for Rab, also called liquid jaggery, sold lose or without pre-packaging. With this change, the GST rate has been cut on Rab/Liquid jaggery from 18% to nil for loosely sold Rab. Further, Notification No. 03/2023-Central Tax (Rate) has revised the GST rate on Rab sold pre-packaged and labelled from 18% to 5%.
GST on pencil sharpeners has been reduced from 18% to 12% by re-classifying it under the HSN code 8214. Notification No. 03/2023-Central Tax (Rate) brings this change with effect from 1st March 2023. Accordingly, the entry at Sl. No. 302A has been revised to exclude the reference to pencil sharpeners.
The GST Council, in its 49th meeting, had recommended taxing the services by courts and tribunals under the reverse charge mechanism. Accordingly, Notification No. 02/2023-Central Tax (Rate) revises the original Notification No. 13/2017- Central Tax (Rate) to include courts and tribunals in its scope.
The government also issued Notification No. 01/2023-Central Tax (Rate) on 28th February 2023, revising to extend the GST exemption to another service. Any Board, authority, or body set up by the Central or State Government, including the National Testing Agency (NTA) conducting entrance examinations for admission into educational institutions, will be treated as an educational institution. The exemption will be considered for the limited intent of providing such services alone and not any other.
Lastly, the CBIC issued the 01/2023-Compensation Cess (Rate) notification that revises Notification No. 1/2017- Compensation Cess (Rate), dated 28th June 2017. Accordingly, the coal rejects either sold to or by a coal washery originating out of coal on which cess is already paid, and the tax credit is not claimed, is exempted from cess. It means the exemption has been extended to coal rejects supplied to coal washeries apart from the supplies by coal washeries.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at annapoorna.m@clear.in
Annapoorna, popularly known as Anna, is an aspiring Chartered Accountant with a flair for GST. She spends most of her day Singing hymns to the tune of jee-es-tee! Well, not most of her day, just now and then.