By Admin 
Gst on bidis and cigarettes: The GST Council has approved major changes in GST rates in the meeting held on 3-4 September. Under this, the prices of tobacco products like cigarette and gutkha are going to increase. However, there will be some fall in the prices of bidi.
Earlier GST on Bidi was 28 percent, which has now been reduced to 18 percent. At the same time, GST has been reduced from 18 percent to 5 percent on the leopard used in making bidi. In contrast, GST is currently charged at the rate of 28 percent on cigarettes and other products made from tobacco, which will now be increased to 40 percent. Now the question comes, why GST has been reduced on bidi?
Many people related to bidi industry
Actually, its purpose may be to save domestic beedi industries, due to which the livelihood of more than 7 million people is connected. This move of the government of course made people think whether only cigarettes harm health, bidi is a loss, whether some people are looking at it by linking it with the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar, giving it the form of politics.
People are also taking jokes on this saying that the cut in GST on bidi shows that the government is really working for the general public. It is also being concerned that Bidi is more harmful than cigarettes. It is consumed by the people of the underprivileged section of the society, due to which they are vulnerable to serious diseases.
All of them had demanded to reduce GST on bidi
Earlier, several social organizations including RSS had urged the government to reduce the rate of 28 percent GST on bidis. His argument was that this would help the workers.
Swadeshi Jagran Manch associated with RSS wrote to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that 28 percent GST has affected employment in the registered area of bidi construction. The forum said that the laborers working in unregistered bidi production units are also facing difficulties. Swadeshi Jagran Manch had said that earlier the government used to impose a small amount of excise duty on the bidi. Many states did not even impose tax on the sale of bidi keeping in mind the interests of bidi workers.
Increased period of compensation cess
The government has said that changes in GST rates will be applicable from September 22, but cigarette, pan masala, gutkha, bidi and other tobacco products will continue to be sold at the same rate till the loan is compensated for the government. Let us know that after the CORONA epidemic, the government had decided to keep the compensation cess implemented by 2026. This is a tax imposed on luxury and syN items. The central government had taken a loan of Rs 2.69 lakh crore to help the states during Kovid-19. To repay this debt, the term of the compensation cess was increased.
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