MIB recommends GST reduction for digital news subscription

Finance Ministry is likely to review goods and services tax (GST) on digital news subscription on its upcoming 54th GST Council meeting, which is to be held on September 9.

This follows the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting writing a letter to the Department of Revenue requesting to either exempt digital news subscriptions from GST or to reduce it from 18% to 5%.

At present, under the IGST Act online news subscriptions are taxed at 18% as Online Information Database Access and Retrieval (OIDAR) services.

Printed newspapers, journals, and periodicals are exempted from the GST.

Online news subscriptions are included in the sub-category of services for supply of images, text, and information and making available of databases.

The letter by MIB secretary Sanjay Jaju was addressed to revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra, requesting that newspapers be exempted from GST.

The online media portals have been demanding a reduction in the GST rate from 18% to 5%.