The government on Wednesday said there is no Goods and Services Tax (GST) on funeral, burial, crematorium or mortuary services.

The press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a social media post that claims to the effect there is GST on these services were misleading.

However, in the case of a works contract or a contract issued to carry out work such as construction, installation or maintenance, there is an 18% GST.

In this reference GST at the rate of 18% is only applicable for work contracts and not the services, PIB said.

“There is no GST on funeral, burial, crematorium or mortuary services. No change has been made in this," said a government official, who spoke on condition of not being named.

“GST rate on works contract supplied to government and works contract for construction of roads, bridges, tunnels, railway, metro, effluent treatment plants, and crematorium etc. on which 12% rate applied earlier, has been revised to 18%. This has been done to correct inverted duty structure as inputs such as cement, steel etc. attract GST at the rate of 28%/18%. This has been done on the recommendation of the group of ministers," said the official.

All other works contracts already attract GST at the rate of 18%. Therefore, uniform rate of 18% will now apply to all works contracts, the person said.