The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council in its Saturday meeting has approved several compliance measures, aiming at reducing tax litigation and enhancing ease of business across the sectors.
The all-powerful Council waived interest and penalty for demand notices issued for the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20. This is for cases where the taxpayer pays the full amount of tax raised in the notice by March 31, 2025. The waiver is conditional and does not cover wilful defaulters.
“The Council at its 53rd meeting has taken key decisions on trade facilitation, easing compliance, and easing the burden of taxpayers,” said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who chaired her first Council meeting under the NDA-led government. “This will benefit MSMEs, traders, and taxpayers,” she said while briefing the media post-Council meeting in Delhi.
She said some of the agenda items couldn’t be taken up due to a paucity of time and could be addressed in the next Council meeting post-budget or before the end of August, FM Sitharaman said.
Among key decisions, the Council approved the PAN-India implementation of biometric-based registration in a phased manner. The move would help weed out fake registrations and fake credits.
It has also given the nod to one of the key amendments in the Central GST Act under Section 11A, which has the potential to overrule retrospective tax demands arising in various sectors.
The amendment will give power to both the centre and states to waive off the GST not paid due to ambiguity of law or on account of “general practices” consistently being followed by the businesses.
The move will have a direct impact on online gaming, foreign airlines, and shipping companies.
To reduce litigation, the Council has approved a monetary limit of Rs 20 lakh for the GST Appellate Tribunal, Rs. 1 crore for the High Court, and Rs 2 crore for the Supreme Court for the filing of appeals by the GST department. Further, it reduced the quantum of pre-deposit required to be paid for filing of appeals under GST.
Source: Business Standard
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