In a big relief for millions of consumers, the Centre on Saturday conceded to a year-long demand and slashed GST rates on a wide range of daily use appliances and products.

The announcement in this regard was made by Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal following a meeting of the GST Council, which decided to reduce tax rates on a wide range of daily use appliances and products.

"GST Council cuts tax rate on an array of products. Rakhis have been exempted from GST, tax on ethanol has been cut to 5 percent, small handicrafts have been exempted," Finance Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters during the press briefing.

Among several items on which GST was reduced include footwear, small televisions, water heater, electric ironing machines, refrigerators, lithium-ion batteries, hair dryers, vacuum cleaners, food appliances and ethanol.

GST on mixer grinder, perfumes, cosmetics, shavers have also been reduced from 28 percent to 18 percent, the FM said.

GST on handbags, jewellery box, wooden box for paintings, artware of glass, stone endeavour, ornamental framed mirrors, handmade lamps etc has been  reduced to 12%, the Finance Minister said.

'While GST tax on sanitary pads was cut from 12 percent to zero, rakhis were exempted from the tax,'' the Finance Minister said.

New tax rates will be effective from July 27, the minister added.

Besides, tax rates on worked up Kota stone, sandstone and similar quality of local stones were cut from 18 to 12 percent, with the purpose of avoiding classification disputes.

The value limit of footwear was enhanced from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for 5 percent rate, Goyal informed.

GST on footwear up to Rs 1,000 reduced by 5%: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal