Business
New GST Rates Likely To Be Implemented By September 22, Says Report
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The GST Council will meet in the national capital on September 3-4 to deliberate on the Centre’s proposal for a simplified two-rate GST structure of 5% and 18%.
Notifications on the new GST rates will likely be issued within five to seven days after the Council’s decision.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is likely to roll out new GST rate slabs around September 22 to push festive demand in the country, NDTV Profit has reported citing government sources. The implementation is expected to coincide with the Navratri celebrations.
The GST Council will meet in the national capital on September 3-4 to deliberate on the Centre’s proposal for a simplified two-rate GST structure of 5% and 18%. According to the report, notifications on the new rates will likely be issued within five to seven days after the Council’s decision.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation, compensation cess, and health and life insurance met earlier this week and, in principle, agreed to the Centre’s plan for a two-slab GST.
As per the reforms proposed by the Centre, GST would move from the current four-tier structure of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% to a two-rate system. Goods and services would be classified under ‘merit’ (5%) and ‘standard’ (18%) categories. A special 40% rate would apply on select luxury and sin goods such as ultra-premium cars, while certain labour-intensive items would continue to enjoy concessional rates as low as 0.1%, 0.3% or 0.5% to support employment-intensive sectors.
On Independence Day 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the upcoming reforms, describing them as ‘GST 2.0’. Calling GST one of the most significant reforms since its launch in 2017, he underscored the need for rationalisation to provide relief to the common man, farmers, the middle class, and MSMEs.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also said the new GST regime will make people self-sufficient and boost growth in manufacturing and MSMEs.
Speaking to Groups of Ministers (GoMs) on rate rationalisation, insurance taxation, and compensation cess, Sitharaman last week said the proposal by the central government is with a vision to usher in the next generation of GST reforms in India’s journey towards becoming the Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Exemption for Insurance Premiums For Individuals
Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, who is also the convenor of insurance GoM, said the Centre has proposed exempting health and life insurance premiums from GST for individuals, to which some states differed. Currently, such premiums attract 18% GST.
“The Centre’s proposal is clear that the insurance sector’s individual and family (policies) should be exempt from GST. This has been discussed and the GoM report will be presented to the Council,” Choudhary told reporters last week after the GoM meeting.
The panel, comprising ministers from 13 states including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, will submit its report to the GST Council by October-end.
Union Minister of State for Finance, Chief Minister of Goa, Deputy CM of Bihar and Finance Ministers of States in the three GoMs were also present at the meeting.
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h…Read More
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h… Read More
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Business
Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time
Stock Market News Live Updates: Indian equity benchmarks opened with a strong gap-up on Monday, December 1, touching fresh record highs, buoyed by a sharp acceleration in Q2FY26 GDP growth to a six-quarter peak of 8.2%. Positive cues from Asian markets further lifted investor sentiment.
The BSE Sensex was trading at 85,994, up 288 points or 0.34%, after touching an all-time high of 86,159 in early deals. The Nifty 50 stood at 26,290, higher by 87 points or 0.33%, after scaling a record intraday high of 26,325.8.
Broader markets also saw gains, with the Midcap index rising 0.27% and the Smallcap index advancing 0.52%.
On the sectoral front, the Nifty Bank hit a historic milestone by crossing the 60,000 mark for the first time, gaining 0.4% to touch a fresh peak of 60,114.05.
Meanwhile, the Metal and PSU Bank indices climbed 0.8% each in early trade.
Global cues
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Monday as traders assessed fresh Chinese manufacturing data and increasingly priced in the likelihood of a US Federal Reserve rate cut later this month.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are now assigning an 87.4 per cent probability to a rate cut at the Fed’s December 10 meeting.
China’s factory activity unexpectedly slipped back into contraction in November, with the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI by S&P Global easing to 49.9, below expectations of 50.5, as weak domestic demand persisted.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6 per cent, while the broader Topix declined 0.86 per cent. In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 0.30 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.31 per cent.
US stock futures were steady in early Asian trade after a positive week on Wall Street. On Friday, in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.65 per cent to 23,365.69, its fifth consecutive day of gains.
The S&P 500 rose 0.54 per cent to 6,849.09, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 289.30 points, or 0.61 per cent, to close at 47,716.42.
Osmond ChiaBusiness reporter
Getty ImagesSouth Korea’s largest online retailer, Coupang, has apologised for a massive data breach potentially involving nearly 34 million local customer accounts.
The country’s internet authority said that it is investigating the breach and that details from the millions of accounts have likely been exposed.
Coupang is often described as South Korea’s equivalent of Amazon.com. The breach marks the latest in a series of data leaks at major firms in the country, including its telecommunications giant, SK Telecom.
Coupang told the BBC it became aware of the unauthorised access of personal data of about 4,500 customer accounts on 18 November and immediately reported it to the authorities.
But later checks found that some 33.7 million customer accounts – all in South Korea – were likely exposed, said Coupang, adding that the breach is believed to have begun as early as June through a server based overseas.
The exposed data is limited to name, email address, phone number, shipping address and some order histories, Coupang said.
No credit card information or login credentials were leaked. Those details remain securely protected and no action is required from Coupang users at this point, the firm added.
The number of accounts affected by the incident represents more than half of South Korea’s roughly-52 million population.
Coupang, which is founded in South Korea and headquartered in the US, said recently that it had nearly 25 million active users.
Coupang apologised to its customers and warned them to stay alert to scams impersonating the company.
The firm did not give details on who is behind the breach.
South Korean media outlets reported on Sunday that a former Coupang employee from China was suspected of being behind the breach.
The authorities are assessing the scale of the breach as well as whether Coupang had broken any data protection safety rules, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement.
“As the breach involves the contact details and addresses of a large number of citizens, the Commission plans to conduct a swift investigation and impose strict sanctions if it finds a violation of the duty to implement safety measures under the Protection Act.”
The incident marks the latest in a series of breaches affecting major South Korean companies this year, despite the country’s reputation for stringent data privacy rules.
SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, was fined nearly $100m (£76m) over a data breach involving more than 20 million subscribers.
In September, Lotte Cards also said the data of nearly three million customers was leaked after a cyber-attack on the credit card firm.
Agency workers hired to cover Birmingham bin strikers will join them on picket lines on Monday, a union has said.
A rally will be held by Unite The Union at Smithfield Depot on Pershore Street, Birmingham, on Monday morning to mark the first day of strike action by agency refuse workers.
Unite said the Job & Talent agency workers had voted in favour of strike action “over bullying, harassment and the threat of blacklisting at the council’s refuse department two weeks ago”.
The union said the number of agency workers who will join the strike action is “growing daily”.
Strikes by directly-employed bin workers, which have been running since January, could continue beyond May’s local elections.
The directly-employed bin workers voted in favour of extending their industrial action mandate earlier this month.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.
“Agency workers have now joined with directly-employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.
“Instead of wasting millions more of council taxpayers’ money fighting a dispute it could settle justly for a fraction of the cost, the council needs to return to talks with Unite and put forward a fair deal for all bin workers.
“Strikes will not end until it does.”
Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time
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