In a good gesture to the print and electronic media, the Jammu and Kashmir government announced that it would be paying GST applicable to the media and advertisement of the state government itself.
Principal Secretary (Finance) Navin Kumar Choudhary in a statement mentioned that, “GST chargeable on advertisement bills shall be paid by the government and it would be over and above the actual advertisement rate charged by the concerned media.”
Also, it was said that the government would bear all the GST paid on the advertising done by the state government and also if done by the private parties of the state.
According to the current rates charged by the applicable provisions, there is 5 percent GST on the official advertisement which is issued to the print and electronic media by the department of information while 18 percent GST in case the advertisement agency sells the media representative space for the purpose of advertisement as a mediator or agent of the newspaper on commission basis.
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As the announcement has been made, the commercial taxes department now have to provide additional funds near to 1.75 crores to the information department for the year 2018-19 in the form of reimbursement to the newspaper agency as 5 percent GST over the 35 crore advertisement budget.
The principal secretary finance also issued a separate order mentioning that all the advertisements, tenders, publicity etc ordered by the government department will be ordered through information department. The order stated that “This also includes advertisements regarding Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and Projects.”
