BENGALURU: Officials from the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) held a meeting with Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, who is the state’s representative to the GST Council, demanding that the council make an amendment to the present system and reduce the GST on flavoured milk.
They also submitted a request to Gowda asking him to request the Centre to change the GST slab of flavoured milk — from beverage to dairy product category. This will reduce the GST from 12% to 5%.
The request was made following the recent Tamil Nadu High Court order which stated that flavoured milk is not a beverage.
Explaining the request, KMF chairman Bheema Naik said that a request has been made to reduce the GST for all milk- based products, especially flavoured milk.
GST Council had stated that since it has high sugar content, it was listed as a beverage. But flavoured milk has 1% sugar and is in multiple flavours. At present there are various slabs for various items and are listed in different categories, while ideally they are all dairy products.
He added that the KMF also informed that its a farmer union based firm and the different tax structures is only an additional burden.
KMF MD MK Jagadish said that orders of listing flavoured milk as a beverage was issued in 2019. “We have given a representation to reduce the GST as flavoured milk are dairy products.
The same has also been expressed by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research and the National Dairy Research Institute. So far, there is no GST on milk. We are hoping that this will be tabled in the coming GST council meeting and will be addressed. With this change, the KMF could save around Rs 30 crore annually,” he said.