Here's a list of 177 items that have become cheaper after govt slashes GST rates

One hundred and seventy-seven items have been lucky enough to now be taxed at 18 percent from the earlier level of 28 percent, food in hotels in now going to get cheaper.

Frank Zappa wrote in his famous song “Montana” that he would grow some “crop of dental floss in Montana and sell uptown”. Although Zappa was making a pun on humanity and youth, the Modi government has made your dental floss cheaper just so that you may go to work prim and proper. So, for all of you oral hygienists and chocolate lovers, GST rate has dropped from 28 percent to 18 percent. Jokes apart, a diverse bunch of SMBs in construction and manufacturing can benefit from this move.

So, just as people thought that the Modi government was making things unbearable with GST’s implementation, the government seems to have reacted fast in understanding their woes. 177 items have been lucky enough to now be taxed at 18 percent from the earlier level of 28 percent.

It also seems that the hotel industry has lobbied for that change because their clientele has, over the last four months, not been spending more and have lowered the ticket sizes of orders. So, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made sure that a uniform five percent GST would be charged on food bill in both AC and non-AC restaurant.

As of today, 12 percent GST on the food bill is charged in non-AC restaurants and 18 percent in AC restaurants. Restaurants in star hotels that charge Rs 7,500 and above for a room will be levied 18 percent GST and input tax credit will be allowed for them.

Here are a few products that will become cheaper after GST being dropped from 28 percent to 18 percent:

• Dental hygiene products, polishes and creams, sanitary ware, leather clothing, artificial fur, wigs, cookers, stoves, after-shave, deodorant, Cutlery, storage water heater, batteries, goggles, wrist watches and mattress.
• Chewing gum, chocolates, coffee, custard powder, marble and granite, detergent and washing power, razors and blades.

Here is the complete list:

• Waffles and wafers coated with chocolate or containing chocolate
• Food preparations not elsewhere specified or included, i.e. protein concentrates and textured protein substances, sugar-syrups containing added flavouring or colouring matter, not elsewhere specified or included; lactose syrup; glucose syrup and maltodextrine syrup, compound preparations for making non-alcoholic beverages, food flavouring material, churna for pan, custard powder
• Other non-alcoholic beverages
• All goods (including aerated waters), containing added sugar or other sweetening matter or flavoured
• Marble and travertine, other than blocks
• Granite, other than blocks
• Portland cement, aluminous cement, slag cement, super sulphate cement and similar hydraulic cements, whether or not coloured or in the form of clinkers
• Paints and varnishes (including enamels and lacquers) based on synthetic polymers or chemically modified natural polymers, dispersed or dissolved in a non-aqueous medium
• Chewing gum/bubble gum and white chocolate, not containing cocoa
• Cocoa butter, fat, and oil
• Cocoa powder, not containing added sugar or sweetening matter
• Chocolates and other food preparations containing cocoa
• Malt extract; food preparations of flour, oats, meal, starch or malt extract, not containing cocoa or containing less than 40 percent by weight of cocoa calculated on a totally defatted basis
• Paints and varnishes (including enamels and lacquers) based on synthetic polymers or chemically modified natural polymers, dispersed or dissolved in an aqueous medium
• Other paints and varnishes (including enamels, lacquers and distempers); prepared water pigments of a kind used for finishing leather
• Artists’, students’ or signboard painters’ colours, modifying tints, amusement colours and the like, in tablets, tubes, jars, bottles, pans or in similar forms or packings
• Preparations for use on the hair such as shampoos, preparations for permanent waived or straightening; hair lacquers; brilliantines (spirituous); hair cream, hair dyes
• Preparations for oral or dental hygiene, including powders; yarn used to clean between the teeth (dental floss), in individual retail packages
• Pre-shave, shaving or after-shave preparations, personal deodorants, bath preparations, depilatories and other perfumery, cosmetic or toilet preparations, not elsewhere specified or included; prepared room deodorisers, whether or not perfumed or having disinfectant properties; such as pre-shave, shaving or after-shave preparations, shaving cream, personal deodorants, and antiperspirants
• Organic surface-active products and preparations for washing the skin, in the form of liquid or cream and put up for retail sale, whether or not containing soap; paper, wadding, felt and nonwovens, impregnated, coated or covered with soap or detergent
• Organic surface-active agents (other than soap); surface-active preparations, washing preparations (including auxiliary washing preparations) and cleaning preparations, whether or not containing soap, other than those of heading.
• Lubricating preparations (including cutting-oil preparations, bolt or nut release preparations, antirust or anti-corrosion preparations and mould release preparations, based on lubricants) and preparations of a kind used for the oil or grease treatment of textile materials, leather, furskins or other materials, but excluding preparations containing, as basic constituents, 70 percent or more by weight of petroleum oils or of oils obtained from bituminous minerals
• Polishes and creams, for footwear, furniture, floors, coachwork, glass or metal, scouring pastes and powders and similar preparations.
• Preparations and charges for fire-extinguishers; charged fire-extinguishing grenades
• Hydraulic brake fluids and other prepared liquids for hydraulic transmission, not containing or containing less than 70 percent by weight of petroleum oils or oils obtained from bituminous minerals
• Anti-freezing preparations and prepared de-icing fluids
• Floor coverings of plastics, whether or not self-adhesive, in rolls or in form of tiles; wall or ceiling coverings of plastics
• Other articles of plastics and articles of other materials of headings (other than bangles of plastic, PVC belt conveyor, plastic beads, and plastic tarpaulins)
• New pneumatic tyres, of rubber (other than of a kind used on/in bicycles, cycle-rickshaws and three wheeled powered cycle rickshaws; and Rear Tractor tyres)
• Retreaded or used tyres and flaps
• Inner tubes of rubber (other than of a kind used on/in bicycles, cycle rickshaws and three wheeled powered cycle rickshaws; and rear tractor tyre tubes)
• Other articles of vulcanised rubber other than hard rubber (other than erasers)
• Hard rubber (for example ebonite) in all forms, including waste and scrap; articles of hard rubber
• Trunks, suit-cases, vanity cases, executive-cases, brief-cases, school satchels, spectacle cases, binocular cases, camera cases, musical instrument cases, gun cases, holsters and similar containers; travelling bags, insulated food or beverages bags, toilet bags, rucksacks, handbags, shopping bags, wallets, purses, map cases, cigarette-cases, tobacco- pouches, tool bags, sports bags, bottle cases, jewellery boxes, powder-boxes, cutlery cases and similar containers, of leather, of sheeting of plastics, of textile materials, of vulcanised fibre or of paperboard, or wholly or mainly covered with such materials or with paper.
• Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, of leather or of composition leather
• Articles of gut (other than silk-worm gut), of goldbeater’s skin, of bladders or of tendons
• Particle board, oriented strand board (OSB) and similar board (for example, wafer board) of wood or other ligneous materials, whether or not agglomerated with resinsor other organic binding substances, other than specified boards
• Fibre board of wood or other ligneous materials, whether or not bonded with resins or other organic substances, other than specified boards
• Plywood, veneered panels and similar laminated wood
• Densified wood, in blocks, plates, strips, or profile shapes
• Wooden frames for paintings, photographs, mirrors or similar objects
• Builders’ joinery and carpentry of wood, including cellular wood panels, assembled flooring panels, shingles, and shakes
• Wood paving blocks, articles of densified wood not elsewhere included or specified, parts of domestic decorative articles used as tableware and kitchenware
• Wall paper and similar wall coverings; window transparencies of paper
• Artificial flowers, foliage and fruit and parts thereof; articles made of artificial flowers, foliage or fruit
• Wool or other animal hair or other textile materials, prepared for use in making wigs or the like
• Worked monumental or building stone (except slate) and articles thereof, mosaic cubes and the like, of natural stone (including slate), whether or not on a backing; artificially coloured granules, chippings and powder, of natural stone (including slate); of marble, travertine and alabaster,of Granite, of other calcareous stone.
• Worked slate and articles of slate or of agglomerated slate
• Panels, boards, tiles, blocks and similar articles of vegetable fibre, of straw or of shavings, chips, particles, sawdust or other waste, of wood, agglomerated with cement, plaster or other mineral binders
• Handbags of other materials excluding wicker work or basket work
• Articles of plaster or of compositions based on plaster; such as boards, sheets, panels, tiles and similar articles, not ornamented
• Articles of cement, of concrete or of artificial stone, whether or not reinforced; such as tiles, flagstones, bricks and similar articles, building blocks and bricks, cement bricks, prefabricated structural components for building or civil engineering, prefabricated structural components for building or civil engineering.