49th GST Council Meeting Recommendations

This is to update you regarding the 49^th GST Council Meeting concluded on February 18, 2023.  Kindly note that the below proposals/ recommendations shall be given effect by way of issuance of relevant notifications/ amendments in the GST law, which could be issued in due course of time.

 

·          Update regarding formation of GST Appellate Tribunal: GST Council adopted the report of Group of Ministers (GoM) on GST Appellate Tribunal with certain modifications.  The final draft amendments to the GST laws shall be circulated to the members shortly which will be finalised by the Chairperson. 

·          Proposal regarding rate change: Changes in GST rates of “Rab” [decrease in rate from 18% to 5% (if sold pre-packaged and labelled), else NIL] and ”Pencil Sharpener” [decrease in rate from 18% to 12%]. It is specifically mentioned that payment of GST on ‘Rab’ for the past periods is decided to be regularised considering genuine doubts over classification.

 

Certain key relaxations and Amnesty scheme/s related proposals: 

·          The time limit for making an application for revocation of cancellation of registration has been increased from 30 days to 90 days [Commissioner or an officer authorised by him shall have the powers to increase such period not exceeding 180 days] 

-         In this regard, an amnesty scheme has been recommended to be made available for the past cases, where registration has been cancelled on account of non-filing of the returns, but application for revocation of cancellation of registration could not be filed within the specified time. 

·          As per section 62(2) of the CGST Act, 2017, the best judgment assessment order is deemed to be withdrawn if the relevant return is filed within 30 days of service of the said assessment order. An amendment is proposed to extend the time limit for filing the relevant returns pursuant to a best judgement assessment order from 30 days (at present) to 60 days (further extendable by another 60 days). 

-         An amnesty scheme for conditional deemed withdrawal of assessment orders in past cases where the concerned return could not be filed within 30 days of the assessment order but has been filed along with due interest and late fee [irrespective of appeal filed or not against such assessment order, or whether the said appeal has been decided or not]  

·          The Council has decided to extend the exemption available for conduct of entrance examination to any authority, board or a body setup by the Central Government or State Government 

·          The Council has recommended to rationalise the late fee for delayed filing of annual return in FORM GSTR-9 for FY 2022-23 onwards as follows: 

Aggregate turnover	Late Fees
2 Crores to 5 crores	Rs 50 per day (Rs 25 CGST + Rs 25 SGST), or 0.04% of his turnover in the State (0.02% CGST + 0.02% SGST), whichever is high
5 Crores to 20 Crores	Rs 100 per day (Rs 50 CGST + Rs 50 SGST) or 0.04% of his turnover in the State (0.02% CGST + 0.02% SGST), , whichever is high
More than 20 crores	Rs 200 per day (Rs 100 CGST + Rs 100 SGST) or 0.5% of the turnover in the State (0.25% CGST + 0.25% SGST), whichever is high

 -         An amnesty scheme is also proposed in respect of pending returns to be filed in Form GSTR-4 (annual returns by Composition taxpayer), Form GSTR-9 (annual returns by regular taxpayer) and Form GSTR-10 (final return) by way of conditional waiver/ reduction of late fee