Rajasthan exempts food, marble items from VAT

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje today announced tax and VAT exemptions on certain food and marble-granite items.
Replying to a debate on Rajasthan Financial Bill 2014-15, Raje said weight to area norms for marble and granite was rationalised from 5 kg/sq ft to 6 kg/sq ft in case of slabs and from 4 kg/sq ft to 5 kg/sq ft in case of tiles.
VAT would be levied on specific duty basis, slabs are also reduced, and some rationalisation of duty rates would also be adopted, she added.
She maintained entertainment tax on all films but exempted Rajasthani language movies.
Among the major announcements that the CM made in her speech include developers and builders exempted from payment of work contract tax for the period before April 1, 2014 in certain situations.

The state government also announced VAT rate on cooked food in restaurants at 5 per cent; coconut oil sold in small containers up to 200 ml at 14 per cent and fruit jams, jelly, packed fruit drinks and juices at 14 per cent, respectively.

Also, statues costing up to Rs 1,000 have been exempted from VAT while the tax rate on those costing more than Rs 1,000 has been reduced from 14 per cent to 5 per cent.
Raje said about 20,000 kms of road would be built at an estimated cost of Rs 70,000 crore on PPP model.
Also, the existing 25,000 ration shops connected with Public Distribution System (PDS) would be modernised and other grocery, food, cold drinks, and other daily used items of branded companies would be sold as an outlet, especially in rural areas, the CM added.