Good news from the East: In India, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council cut rates on numerous employment-oriented goods and services, diamonds and precious stones among them. According to Art of Jewellery, the GST Council recommended to reduce GST from 3% to 0.25% on both diamonds and precious stones.
The council announced the move last Thursday (January 18) “in a bid to encourage greater compliance as revenues have dipped since the landmark reform was announced in July”. The cut rates will be in effect starting January 25.
Last September, the GST Council decided to “harmonise rates for import of rough diamonds across all HS Codes”, meaning that the GST on the industrial and unsorted diamonds category was lowered from 3% to 0.25%.
