Synopsis of GST Council Meetings

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  • Last Updated on 28 November, 2023
Month Events
22nd

& 23rdSeptember, 2016

1st GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

· Draft Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business in GST Council.

· Proposed timetable for the implementation of GST.

· Thresholds for exemption and composition under GST.

· Draft Modalities for GST Compensation and draft Compensation Law.

·Provisions for Cross-Empowerment to ensure Single Interface Under GST.

30th September, 2016 2nd GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

· Discussion on Draft GST Rules on Registration, Payment, Return, Refund and Invoice, Debit/Credit Notes – Synopsis

· Discussion on Treatment of the existing tax incentive schemes of the Central and State Governments

18th& 19th October, 2016 3rd GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

· Discussion on Modalities for compensation to the states for possible revenue loss.

· Discussion on Provision for Cross-Empowerment to ensure Single Interface under GST.

·Discussion on Finalization of the bands of tax rates under GST Regime

3rd& 4th November, 2016 4th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

·Presentation by GSTN on status of development of GST Portal, Data migration/Enrolment plan, Risk factors and mitigation plan.

2nd& 3rd December, 2016 5th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

·Discussion on Approval of the Draft GST Law, Draft IGST Law and Draft GST Compensation Law.

·Discussion on GST treatment of land & building (real estate).

·Discussion on Definition of “State” in Model GST Law and IGST Law.

11th December, 2016 6th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

· Discussion on Approval of the Draft GST Law, the Draft IGST Law and the Draft GST Compensation Law

22nd & 23rd December, 2017 7th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

·Discussion on Approval of the Draft GST Law, Draft IGST Law and Draft GST Compensation Law

· Discussion on Definition of State, Imposition of Tax on Goods and Services in UTs without Legislature, Territorial Waters and Exclusive Economic Zones and Provisions for authorization of proper officers in States.

3rd & 4th January, 2017 8th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

· Presentations by representatives of the following sectors – a. Banking and Insurance b. Telecommunication c. Information Technology (IT) & Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) d. Civil Aviation e. Railways f. Commerce

· Discussion on Approval of the Draft IGST Law

· Discussion on Approval of the Draft Compensation Law as modified in accordance with the decisions of the GST Council and vetted by the Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India

16th January, 2017 9th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

·Discussion on issues of considering sale within twelve nautical miles as inter-state or intra-state sale.

18th February, 2017 10th GST Council Meeting held in Udaipur

·Discussion on Pending items of the previous GST Council meetings.

4th March, 2017 11th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

· Approved the draft CGST Bill and the draft IGST Bill as vetted by the Union Law Ministry.

· Discussion on development of an e-Waybill System by Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN)

16th March, 2017 12th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

· Discussion on Approval of the Draft UTGST Law as vetted by the Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India

· Discussion on Amendments to the draft IGST Law

· Discussion on Constitution of a Task Force to suggest measures for creating an eco-system for seamless freight movement (Based on an agenda note received from MoRTH).

31st March, 2017 13th GST Council Meeting held in Delhi

· Discussion on Approval of the Draft GST Rules on: (a) Input Tax Credit (b) Valuation (c) Transitional Provisions (d) Composition

· Centre introduces The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in Lok Sabha to amend Customs Act, 1962, Customs Tariff Act, 1975, Central Excise Act, 1944 and Finance Act, 2001 & 2005 and repeal certain enactments which are consequential to the enactments proposed to be enacted for the introduction of GST.

· Date for migration of Central Excise & Service Tax assessee to GST extended from 31st March, 2017 to 30th April, 2017 as available from www.cbec.gov.in. Further, as per GSTN (www.gst.gov.in), the dates have been extended too 30th April, 2017

18-19th May, 2017 14th GST Council Meeting scheduled to be held in Srinagar.

· Approves GST rates for goods and GST Compensation Cess

· The fitment of rates of goods were discussed during the Council meeting.

· The Council has broadly approved the GST rates for goods at nil rate, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% to be levied on certain goods.

· The Council has also broadly approved the rates of GST Compensation Cess to be levied on certain goods.

3rd June, 2017 15th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.

Discussion on:

· Presentation on Information Technology (IT)-readiness of GSTN for roll-out of GST

· Approval of amendments to the following draft Goods and Services Tax (GST) Rules and related Forms i. Return Rules and Forms, including GST Tax Practitioner Forms and Mismatch Forms ii. Transition Rules and Forms

· Finalization of the rates of tax and cess to be levied on commodities remaining after the Fitment exercise during the 14th GST Council Meeting

·Presentation on concept note on operationalizing the Anti-Profiteering Clause in GST Law

11th June, 2017 16th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.

· Rate adjustments, if any, based on representations received from Trade and Industry

18th June, 2017 17th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.

· Relaxation in return filing procedure for first two months of GST implementation

· For the first two months of GST implementation, the tax would be payable based on a simple return (Form GSTR-3B)

30th June, 2017 18th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.
17th July, 2017 19th GST Council Meeting held through Video Conferencing.

· Increase in the Compensation Cess rate on cigarettes to make the total tax incidence on cigarettes in GST regime at par with the total tax incidence in pre-GST regime.

5th August, 2017 20th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.
9th September, 2017 21st GST Council Meeting held in Hyderabad.

· Decided to extend the due date of filing GSTR 1

· Setting up a committee to examine the issues related to exports.

· Constitution of Group of Ministers to monitor and resolve the IT challenges faced during GST implementation.

6th October, 2017 22nd GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.

· Increase in annual aggregate turnover of up to INR 1 crore for composition scheme.

· Constitution of Group of Ministers (GoM) to examine measures to make the composition scheme more attractive.

· Relief for Small and Medium Enterprises in filing of GSTR 1 on quarterly basis with annual aggregate turnover up to INR 1.5 crores.

· Suspension of RCM under section 9(4)

· Taxpayers having annual aggregate turnover up to INR 1.5 crores shall not be required to pay GST at the time of receipt of advances on account of supply of goods.

· TDS/TCS provisions suspended.

· Rationalization in the rates of tax on services

· Immediate relief is being given by extending the Advance Authorization (AA) / Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) / 100% EOU schemes to sourcing inputs etc. from abroad as well as domestic suppliers. Holders of AA / EPCG and EOUs would not have to pay IGST, Cess etc. on imports. Also, domestic supplies to holders of AA / EPCG and EOUs would be treated as deemed exports under Section 147 of CGST/SGST Act and refund of tax paid on such supplies given to the supplier.

· Merchant exporters will now have to pay nominal GST of 0.1% for procuring goods from domestic suppliers for export.

· The permanent solution to cash blockage is that of “e-Wallet” which would be credited with a notional amount as if it is an advance refund.

10th November, 2017 23rd GST Council Meeting held in Guwahati, Assam.

· Facility for manual filing of application for advance ruling is being introduced for the time being.

· Relaxation in Return Filing

· All service providers, whether supplying intra-State, inter-State or through e-commerce operator, will be exempt from obtaining GST registration, provided their aggregate turnover does not exceed INR 20 lakhs (INR 10 lakhs in special category States except J & K).

·Benefits for Diplomatic Missions/UN organizations where all compliance for such agencies will be done by the Central Government in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs.

· Changes in Composition Scheme

16th December, 2017 24th GST Council Meeting held through Video Conferencing.

· Decides that Inter-State e-way Bill to be made compulsory from 1st of February, 2018

· The Uniform System of e-way Bill for Inter-State as well as Intra-State movement will be implemented across the country by 1st June, 2018.

18th January, 2018 25th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.

·Recommendations made on GST Rate changes on services.

· Recommendation of Policy Changes

· Recommendations for Changes In GST/IGST Rate and Clarifications in Respect of GST Rate on Certain Goods

10th March, 2018 26th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.

· Recommendations regarding Data Analytics

· Variance between the amount of IGST & Compensation Cess paid by importers at Customs ports and input tax credit of the same claimed in GSTR-3B.

· Major data gaps between self-declared liability in FORM GSTR-1 and FORM GSTR-3B.

· Recommended the introduction of e-way bill for inter-State movement of goods across the country from 1st April 2018.

· For intra-State movement of goods, e-way bill system will be introduced w.e.f. a date to be announced in a phased manner but not later than 01st June, 2018.

· Extension of RCM u/s 9(4), TDS and TCS provisions

· GST implementation Committee (GIC) has been tasked with the work of redressing the grievances caused to the taxpayers arising out of IT glitches.

· Decides extension of tax exemptions for exporters for six months up to 1st October, 2018

4th May, 2018 27th GST Council Meeting held in New Delhi.

· Approves principles for filing of new return design based on the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on IT simplification.

· Change in the shareholding pattern of GSTN i.e. 51% held by the Non-Governmental Institutions in GSTN amounting to INR 5.1 crore, equally by the Centre and the States governments.

· Discussed in detail the proposal of a concession of 2% in GST rate on B2C supplies, for which payment is made through cheque or digital mode so as to incentivize promotion of digital payment.

· Discussed the issue of imposition of sugar cess and reduction in GST rate on ethanol in great detail.

· Two Group of Ministers Constituted to consider the issues relating to “Incentivizing digital payments in the GST regime” & “Imposition of Cess on Sugar under GST”.

 

 Also Read: Committee in GST regime to address specific issues

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