GST 2025: Rate Cuts Unleash Economic Power Across Maharashtra’s Key Sectors
Major Relief for Consumers and Healthcare
The GST exemption on individual health and life insurance policies significantly reduces the cost of premiums, enhancing social security and affordability. Furthermore, the GST rate on medicines and medicaments has been reduced from 12% to 5%, lowering healthcare expenses for households.
Boost for Manufacturing and Automobile Clusters
The automotive sector, particularly the Pune-Chakan-Talegaon belt, benefits from GST rate cuts on auto parts, motorcycles under 350cc, and small cars (with large car compensation cess removed), driving up demand. The defence manufacturing sector also gains from a revised 5% GST on armoured vehicles and IGST exemptions on critical components, encouraging indigenous production.
Support for Agriculture and Food Processing
The key sugar industry, supporting 50 lakh farmers, benefits from a GST reduction on refined sugar from 12% to 5%, lowering wholesale prices. Similarly, processed foods like fruit juices, jams, and preserved fish (benefiting 200,000+ fishermen) see a GST cut from 12% to 5%, boosting consumption and value-addition in the state’s horticultural belts.
Empowerment of Handlooms and Artisans
The textile industry, Maharashtra’s second-largest employer, sees a GST cut on yarn and fabrics from 12% to 5%, improving the competitiveness of the power loom sector. Traditional handicrafts like Kolhapuri Chappals and Warli Paintings, and textiles like the high-value Paithani Sarees, gain from reduced GST rates on finished goods and key inputs, directly supporting over 1.1 million workers and artisans.