The GST Council of India has announced to reduce GST rates on 18 handicrafts items at its 21st meeting held recently in New Delhi.
The items included are idols of clay, wood, stone, metals, table and kitchenware, paper machine articles, stone inlay work, statues, worked ivory, bone, shell horn items, cotton quilts, brooms and brushes and some natural fibre products.
Rakesh Kumar, Executive Director, Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), an apex organisation of trade and industry for promotion of Indian handicrafts, thanked the Textile Ministry for easing the GST norms for the handicraft sector.
In the press release issued, the trade association informed that it had been representing various measures to the GST Council that will facilitate a smooth transition of the handicraft sector into the GST system.
The EPCH has further urged the Council to slash GST rates to 5 per cent on handicraft job work and reduce rates on various other items exported from handicraft clusters of Jodhpur, Jaipur, Saharanpur and Moradabad.
