19/02/2023
The GST Council in its 49th meeting held on 18th February, 2023 made following recommendations:
A. Trade Faciliatation measures:
a). Rationalization of late fee for Annual Return:
For Turnover upto INR 5 crore: Rs 50 per day (Rs 25 CGST + Rs 25 SGST), subject to a maximum of 0.04 percent of his turnover in the State or UT (0.02% CGST + 0.02% SGST).
For Turnover above INR 5 crore upto INR 20 crore: Rs 100 per day (Rs 50 CGST + Rs 50 SGST), subject to a maximum of 0.04 percent of his turnover in the State or UT (0.02% CGST + 0.02% SGST).
b). Amensty by way of conditional waiver/ reduction in late fee for pending returns in FORM GSTR-4 (composition dealer), FORM GSTR-9 (regular dealer) and FORM GSTR-10 (final return).
c). Rationalization of provision of place of supply of services of transportation of goods: Section 13(9) of the IGST Act, 2017 to be deleted, to provide that the place of supply of services of transportation of goods, in cases where the location of the supplier of services or the location of the recipient of services is outside India, shall be the location of the recipient of services.
d). Timeline Extension for Revocation Application for Cancellation of Registration and one time Amnesty Scheme for past cases: The time limit for making an application for revocation of cancellation of registration to be increased from 30 days to 90 days (further extendable by 180 days). Further, where registration has been cancelled on account of non filing of returns but application could not be filed withing prescribed time, such persons would be allowed to file application by a specified date, subject to certain conditions.
B. Change in GST levy and rates on goods and services
a). Taxable services provided by the Courts and Tribunals shall be taxable under reverse charge mechanism (RCM).
b). Extension of exemption to any authority, board or a body set up by the Central Government or State Government including National Testing Agency for conduct of entrance examination for admission to educational institutions.
c). GST rate for Rab shall be 5% if sold pre-packaged and labelled, and NIL if sold otherwise.
d). GST rate for pencil sharpeners shall be reduced from 18% to 12%.
C. Central Govt. to clear the balance dues of GST Compensation Cess to States amounting to INR 16,982 crores for the month of June 2022. Furthermore, the Centre to pay the admissible final GST compensation cess due to the respective states that have provided their revenue figures as certified by the respective states’ Accountant General, totaling Rs. 16,524 crores.
D. GoM Report on Constitution of GST Appellate Tribunal: The report that was compiled by the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the GST Appellate Tribunal was approved by the GST Council with some amendments. The members will be asked for their feedback on the final draft of the amendments to the GST laws.
E. GoM Report on Capacity Based Taxation and Special Composition Scheme in certain Sectors on GST: To improve revenue collection from products like pan masala, gutkha, and chewing to***co, the council approved the GoM's following recommendations:
a). capacity-based levy is not to be prescribed
b). implementation of compliance and tracking measures
c). exports only against letter of undertaking (LUT) with subsequent refund of accumulated ITC
d). levy of compensation cess to be changed from value based to specific tax based