The new Goods and Service Tax (GST) is going to implement from 1st July. The confusion about tax levies on statues and pictures of religious deities under new GST Regime has become an issue of anxiety for sculptors.
Director of Adi Gaur Brahmin (Moorti Kalakar) Sanstha, Satya Narayan Pande, is not clear about the impact of GST Regime on sculptures or religious statues. He said that “There is no mention of religious statues under the GST tax slab, however, according to the code number 97, it is under the tax slab of 12 per cent.”
He expresses anxiety about new GST Regime and said that, If GST levies on sculptors or religious statues, it will negatively influence the business specifically in the international market. Pande said that “Under GST, the price of such things is bound to increase and we fear that the potential buyers will go for Chinese made items online,”Pande added.
He further added that, if in a case carver or sculptors not registered under the new GST Regime and they don’t hold TIN numbers, then the banks and financial institutions will not provide loans or credit for operating their business.
Radheshyam Sharma, Director of Moorti Kala Laghu Udyog Mandal said, “90 percent of sculptors are poor and uneducated. Implementation of tax on them will not only affect their art but also hit their day-to-day lives.”
Under the current taxation structure, religious statues or identities, not levies any taxes and also exempted from VAT and Excise Duty, which provide the goods or items at affordable price. Not imposing any taxes in new GST Regime. The religious trust and temples, as well as religious pictures, will not levy any taxes in new GST Regime.
