Out of these 143 items, 92 per cent are proposed to be shifted from the 18 per cent tax slab to the top 28 per cent slab

Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. Here is one more bad news for Indians, already reeling under inflation. As part of a proposed rate rationalisation under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to bolster revenues, the GST Council, the governing body for the indirect tax regime, has sought views of states for hiking rates on 143 items.

What are those items?

These items include papad, gur (jaggery), power banks, watches, suitcases, handbags, perfumes, deodorants, colour TV sets (below 32 inches), chocolates, chewing gums, walnuts, custard powder, non-alcoholic beverages, ceramic sinks, wash basins, goggles, frames for spectacles/goggles and apparel and clothing accessories of leather, sources said.

Changes mark a reversal of the rate cut

Many of these proposed rate changes mark a reversal of the rate cut decisions taken by the Council in November 2017 and December 2018, in the run-up to the 2019 general elections.

Up and down in prices continue

Decemberor items such as perfumes, leather apparel and accessories, chocolates, cocoa powder, beauty or make-up preparations, fireworks, floor coverings of plastics, lamps, sound recording apparatus, and armoured tanks were reduced in the November 2017 meeting held in Guwahati — and are now proposed to be hiked again. Similarly, GST rates for items such as colour TV sets and monitors (below 32 inches), digital and video camera recorders, power banks were reduced in the December 2018 meeting and may now get reversed.