There will be no GST on this pulse, wheat, rye, oats, corn, rice, flour, semolina, gram flour, mudhi and lassi!

There was a strong reaction across the country after the ongoing provision for levying GST on essential food items. Since the matter was related to the common man, so the government also thought it appropriate to clarify while doing damage control. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday tweeted one after the other and shared the list of some essential food grains which will not attract GST. He clarified that the food items listed in the shared list will not be subject to any kind of GST if they are sold in the open. The ingredients on the list are pulses, wheat, rye, oats, corn, rice, atta, semolina, gram flour, mudhi and lassi.

As the talk of levying GST on these essential food items went on and the way people from politically opposed parties started surrounding the government, the Finance Minister said in his tweet that the decision to impose GST on food items was not taken by any one person but by one person. The entire GST Council has taken a joint process. During the GST Council meeting, non-BJP ruled states such as Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala had also agreed to levy five per cent. The Finance Minister also said that such a decision was necessary to prevent tax evasion.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that this is not the first attempt to tax food items. Even before the implementation of GST, the tax on food items was applicable in many states. Before 2017, VAT was also imposed on rice in states like Punjab, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Bihar.