Vijayawada MP Kesineni Shivnath (Chinni) raised the issue of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on fruit protection paper bags, in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, stated that an 18% GST was currently being levied on paper bags used for fruit protection across the country. He provided this written response on Monday to questions raised by Mr. Sivanath

There is no specific Harmonised System (HS) code for these fruit protection paper bags, so GST collection details from the past five years are unavailable. He explained that these paper bags fall under HS code 4819. Currently, there are no plans to reduce the GST rate on these bags.

“The GST rates are determined based on the recommendations of the GST Council, and so far, no recommendations have been received from the council to reduce the tax rate on these products,” the Minister said.

Source: The Hindu