TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Most of the food items will be cheaper as the GST rate on them has been kept within 5 per cent range, Union minister Harsimran Kaur Badal said today. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be rolled out from July 1.
“I am happy that the GST rate (on food items) has been kept within five per cent range. Lot of things will be cheaper. Food items are definitely not going to be expensive,” the Food Processing Minister said at India Today’s round table conference here.
The minister said that she had requested the finance minister to keep food items in ‘exempt’ category or lowest GST rate slab. On being asked whether Indian food standards were in line with international level, the Union minister said the food safety regulator FSSAI was harmonising Indian standards with the global level.
Earlier, there was a delay in product approval as each product clearance used to take time and there was “stagnation” in the approval process. However the system has been fastened in the last one year, she said.
