New Delhi: You will have to pay more for mobile phone calls, eating out at restaurants, air tickets, cable and DTH services, among others, as finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday proposed to impose a 0.5 per cent Krishi Kalyan Cess on “all taxable services” from June this year.
Buying new cars will be costlier too, as Mr Jaitley plans to levy an infrastructure cess of one per cent on small petrol, LPG and CNG cars, of 2.5 per cent on diesel cars (of length not exceeding 4 metres and engine capacity not exceeding 1,500cc) and of four per cent on higher engine capacity vehicles and SUVs.
Krishi cess to make services dearer
With this, car prices are set to shoot up, ranging from Rs 2,000 on mass market vehicles to over Rs 1 lakh on big diesel SUVs and sedans. In addition, all cars priced above Rs 10 lakh will also attract a tax of one per cent at source.
The Krishi Kalyan Cess will be exclusively used for financing initiatives relating to improvement of agriculture and the welfare of farmers. It will make a host of services costlier, including visits to beauty parlours, courier delivery, credit and debit card usage, employing chartered accountants, architects, insurance and demands raised by real estate builders for housing projects, among others.
Mr Jaitley had imposed a similar Swachchh Bharat cess on services last year. Mobile phones and tablets too will become dearer as the government proposes to raise levies on components like PCBs and peripherals like batteries and chargers.
Smart watches will also be dearer as they will now be subject to retail sales price-based assessment of excise duty with abatement of 35 per cent.
Soft drinks and mineral water will also be dearer as the finance minister proposed to hike excise duty on “water, including mineral water, aerated water containing added sugar or sweetening matter” to 21 per cent from 18 per cent earlier.
Branded readymade clothes that cost Rs 1,000 or more will become costlier as the excise duty on them has been increased to two per cent without Centvat credit from nil earlier.
