Don’t be fooled: smoking gets more expensive from today

Saturday April 01, 2017 , 2 min Read

Be ready to pay six percent more on items that make you pass your time.

Today is April’s Fools’ Day, but it’s no joke that a lot of items are going to be expensive with the increase in tax, effective today.

However, not all news is bad news in April because there are several items that are going to get cheaper by the pound. While there is a blanket raise of six percent on several items, smoking is not going to be the favourite pass time this year.

Similarly, builders, and automobile companies that import LED lamp components are not going to be happy either. So if you are seen driving a Suzuki Baleno or the Hyundai i20, then you will have to shell out more. The more expensive your car, the LED lamp components will be expensive. Builders that install LED lamps at homes or apartments too will charge you a slightly higher premium.

GST will be a big adjustment that MSMEs have to make this year. A considerable amount of time will be spent understanding input tax credit, which will take time.

The GST is going live on July first and surely there will be a lot of paperwork. The GST rates are pegged between 26 and 32 percent depending on the product.

Now your premiums for car, motorcycle, and health insurance will have higher commissions thanks to agents extracting their pound of flesh. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) asked insurers to increase commissions for agents.

List of what got expensive:

Insurance
Cigarrettes/cigar
Pan Masala
Cheroots
Paper-rolled handmade bidis
Chewing tobacco
LED lamp components
Cashew nuts (roasted and salted)
Silver coins and medallions.

The government is also making things cheaper for consumption. Frequent travellers are going to have no charges for booking online. Homemakers will be happier this year because there are no duties on RO membranes.

Companies implementing POS machines and fingerprint readers will be encouraged going forward as it fits into the Digital India campaign of the government. So when you go to a restaurant, next time, you can pay using your fingerprint linked to Aadhaar’s unique identity number.