GST to exempt around 100 items from its regime

Under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the Centre and state governments would exempt about 100 items. The decision to keep the list short has been taken despite several requests from different industry associations to exempt their products or keep them in the lowest slab.

As of now, 299 items have been exempted from taxes by the centre, while states have kept 99 items out of the tax regime.

The exemption list is supposed to include common use items like salt, primary produce, fruits and vegetables, flour, salt, milk, eggs, tea, coffee and prasad sold at temples.

The final call will be taken by the GST Council this week.

"The decision to grant exemptions to certain sectors and below a threshold - especially in case of services - should be based on whether exemptions really benefit the target group, given that input GST would be a cost," Bipin Sapra, partner, EY, told ET.