On social media, information has a way of morphing into something that is misleading. Recently, the Ministry of Finance tweeted an image containing a table that shows the tax that electronic goods, including smartphones, attract in India. The table, which is titled “Relief Through GST on Household Goods” shows two columns: one, which has the tax rate on a particular gadget before GST was implemented and another that shows current GST rate for that gadget. In all the cases cited in the table, it is shown that the tax is reduced. Now, the image is viral with the claim that the government has reduced the GST on gadgets from July 1 and that soon phones, TVs, refrigerators etc will become.
The claim is totally wrong.
The table that is by now tweeted and retweeted by thousands, although somewhat confusing, is not factually wrong. It only says that, for example, a mobile phone used to attract direct and indirect tax rate of around 31 per cent before GST was rolled out in India. Now, it attracts a GST of 18 per cent. Similar is the case for other gadgets that have been mentioned in the table.
Twitter users, however, got the impression from the table that government is reducing GST rate, for example, on mobile phones from 31 per cent to 18 per cent. And they are now sharing and re-sharing the table with claim that from July 1 prices of gadgets in India will come down. This is entirely wrong because there is no change in existing GST rate for gadgets. A mobile phone, for example, currently attracts 18 per cent GST and it will continue to attract the same tax rate unless the government changes it.