Pre-packaged food under GST, 12% tax on hotels with tariff up to Rs 1,000

Bringing pre-packaged and labelled food items such as wheat flour, puffed rice, curd/ lassi/ buttermilk and paneer under the GST net, withdrawing exemption for hotels with rent below Rs 1,000 a day and correction of inverted duty structure for host of items such as edible oils, coal, LED lamps, printing ink, knives and solar water heaters are learnt to have been approved by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on the first day of its 47th meeting on Tuesday.

The discussion on the contentious issue of extension of compensation for states beyond June 2022 and 28 per cent GST rate on casinos, online gaming, and horse racing, are to be taken up for deliberations on Wednesday.

According to sources, the GST Council has also approved compliance measures for high-risk taxpayers including mandatory biometric authentication, inclusion of electricity bill data, real-time validation of all bank accounts against a particular PAN and geo-tagging.

Mandatory generation of e-way bills by states for intra-state transportation of gold and precious stones has also been approved by the Council but the decision on the threshold has been left to the states.