48th Meeting of the GST Council

The 48^th meeting of GST was held on 17^th December 2022 through online mode of video conferencing. Under the press release of CBIC, some of the recommendations has been discussed regarding the change in GST rates.

The change in rates of goods is as follows:-

This was the primary recommendation made by the chairperson of the Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. Let us know more of the changes that shall be made in the upcoming assessment year 2023-24.

Talking about the second change to be made under the GST regime, it has been decided to include supply of Mentha arvensis under the reverse charge mechanism as has been done for Mentha Oil.

Moreover additional changes are,

• Rab (rab- salawat) is classifiable under CTH 1702 which attracts GST at the rate of 18%.
• fryums manufactured using the process of extrusion is specifically covered under CTH 19059030 and attract GST at the rate of 18%.
• The higher rate of compensation cess of 22% is applicable to motor vehicle fulfilling all four conditions, namely, it is popularly known as SUV, has an engine capacity exceeding 1500 cc, length exceeding 4000 mm and a ground clearance of 170 mm or above
• goods falling in the lower rate category of 5% under schedule I of notification No. 1/2017-CTR imported for petroleum um operations will attract lower rate of 5% and the rate of 12% shall be applicable only if the general rate is more than 12%.

Coming to the third major change, as a relief measure the Council decided to regularize the intervening period starting from the date of issuance of Circular (3.08.2022) in respect of GST on ‘husk of pulses including chilka and concentrates including chuni/churi, khanda’ on “ as is basis” on account of genuine doubts.

Also, no GST is payable where the residential dwelling is rented to a registered person if it is rented in his/her personal capacity for use as his/her own residence and on his/her own account and not on account of his business.

Under the 48^th GST Council meeting, it is also decided that the incentive paid by the Central Government under the scheme for the promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions are in the nature of subsidy and thus not taxable.             

Notably to facilitate the trade, some additional measures are also been recommended by the GST Council which are listed below:-

Measures for facilitation of trade under GST

1. Decriminalization under GST

• raise the minimum threshold of tax amount for launching prosecution under GST from Rs. One Crore to Rs. Two Crores, except for the offence of issuance of invoices without supply of goods or services or both;
• reduce the compounding amount from the present range of 50% to 150% of tax amount to the range of 25% to 100%;
• decriminalize certain offences specified under clause (g), (j) and (k) of sub-section (1) of section 132 of CGST Act, 2017, viz.-
• obstruction or preventing any officer in the discharge of his duties;
• deliberate tempering of material evidence;
• failure to supply the information.

2. The GST Council recommended an amendment in CGST Rules 2017 along with issuance of a circular to prescribe the procedure for filing an application of a refund by the unregistered buyer.
3. Issuance of the following circulars in order to remove ambiguity and legal disputes on various issues, thus benefiting taxpayers at large:
4. Procedure for verification of input tax credit in cases involving difference in input tax

credit availed in FORM GSTR-3B vis a vis that available as per FORM GSTR-2A

during FY 2017-18 and 2018-19.

1. Clarifying the manner of re-determination of demand in terms of sub-section (2) of

section 75 of CGST Act, 2017.

1. Clarification in respect of applicability of e-invoicing with respect to an entity

Measure for streaming GST Compliances

1. Amendment in rule 8 and rule 9 of CGST Rules 2017 to make a proposal for conducting a pilot in State of Gujarat for Biometric-based Aadhar authentication and risk-based physical verification of registration applicants. This change will help in tackling the menace of fake and fraudulent registrations.
2. In Form GST REG-01, PAN-linked mobile number and email address must be recorded along with OTP-based verification. As it will restrict the misuse of PAN of a person by unscrupulous elements without knowledge of the said PAN holder.
3. Additionally, it is asked to amend Section 37,39,44 and 52 of the CGST Act in order to restrict the filing of returns/statements to a maximum period of three years from the due date of filing of the relevant return/statement.
4. Form GSTR-1 must be changed so that details of supplies made through ECOs is reported.
5. Amendment in definition of “non-taxable online recipient” under section 2(16) of IGST Act, 2017 and definition of “Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval Services (OIDAR)” under section 2(17) of IGST Act, 2017 so as to reduce interpretation issues and litigation on taxation of OIDAR Services.

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Note:- The recommendations of the GST Council have been presented in this release containing major item of decisions in simple language for the information of the stakeholders. The same would be given effect through the relevant circulars/ notifications/ law amendments which alone shall have the force of law.