Keep calm: you would be paying more for phone bills and buying ‘Make in India’ phones

Just in case you were too happy about GST, here’s some disappointment. Your daily dose of Netflix and Chill will take a toll as the government is all set to increase the tax slab in telephone bills from July.

What resulted in such a burn in your pocket is the government raising the tax slab. After GST is inducted, telephone bills will be classified in 18% and 12% tax bracket respectively.

As a result, phone bills above Rs 1000 will be charged Rs 30 more as the tax bracket will go from 15% to 18%. Also for prepaid users, instead of getting Rs 84 for Rs 100 recharge, you may get Rs 82 or a bit less.

"The telecom industry is disappointed with the announced GST rate of 18 per cent, which will further stress an already bleeding sector," Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) told the ET.

"COAI had submitted to the government that consideration be given to the sector's present financial condition and that any GST rate beyond the existing 15 per cent (service tax) would make telecom services more expensive for the consumer,” he added.



No benefits in Make in India?

Mobile phones manufactured in the country will be 4-5% costlier as GST rate has been fixed at 12%. Earlier these manufacturers were in a lower tax bracket. On the flip side, phone manufactured outside the country and imported will be cheaper. This would come as a blow to many phone manufacturers who started producing in the country to offer cheaper handsets.