Infrastructure levy to make cars dearer, luxury SUVs to attract extra tax
Infrastructure levy to make cars dearer, luxury SUVs to attract extra tax
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.
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 lakhs 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 printed circuit boards (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. Customs duty on imported imitation jewellery has gone up from 10 per cent to 15 per cent while customs duty on industrial solar water heater has increased from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent, that will make these items costlier.
Availing of legal services through senior advocates or legal firms will cost more as such activity will no longer be exempt from service tax, with the finance minister proposing a levy of 14 per cent. Lottery tickets will also become expensive as that will come in the service tax net. Imported e-reading devices like Kindles will be dearer as it will now attract basic customs duty of 7.5 per cent, as against nil earlier.
Solar lamps will, however, cost less as they have been exempted from excise duty. Earlier, they were taxed at 12.5 per cent.
