Uttar Pradesh government had increased the existing Value Added Tax by 0.5% making the refrigerators, ACs, mobiles and such goods costlier. The Cabinet decided, in a meeting, the hike on Tuesday and would be put into force after the notification is issued today on Wednesday.

According to the decision, in addition to 12.5 per cent VAT, which is imposed on certain items, the existing additional tax at 1 per cent has been increased to 1.5 per cent.

Consumer commodities like ACs, refrigerators, motor cycles, cosmetics, shampoos, sanitary goods, tiles, electrical appliances, transformers, water purifiers, cameras, expensive mobile phones (costing more than Rs 10,000), cooked food supplements, industrial LPG, watches, cranes, cement, machinery and others goods would suffer from higher prices.

The government contended that the hike was fair by saying that the additional tax was still much lesser than the taxes in other states even after the hike.

(AW- Anil)