The much-awaited GST Council meeting will next take place in May 2022. It shall be called the 47th GST Council meeting and focus on GST rate restructuring. The development happens when the Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman is going on a 10-day US trip for the World Bank-IMF meeting in April 2022.
The GST Council meeting was supposed to happen in April 2022 but is pushed to the next month. Sources have conveyed that the 47th GST Council meeting may likely occur at Shillong, Meghalaya, as per the earlier plans.
Among the many items on the agenda, the extension of the GST compensation cess will be in the limelight. In India, several opposition-rules states have urged the government to extend the five-year compensation period under the GST law before it ends in July 2022. The Central government has already promised such states facing a revenue shortfall by compensating them twice a month following the GST implementation.
Suppose the GST Council votes to extend the GST compensation. In that case, an amendment must be made to the Indian Constitution, which will be taken up in the next parliamentary session.
Apart from the above matter, the GST Council is also expected to take a call on merging 5% and 12% GST rates into a single rate of 8%. Moreover, certain items may be reclassified from the GST rate of 12% to fall under the 18% rate.
However, a government official stated to the New Indian Express team that a conclusion on GST rate restructuring might not be arrived at in the next Council meeting.
The GST rate structure currently contains four important GST rate slabs – 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. Many economists and industry experts felt it necessary to merge a few slabs to arrive at revenue-neutral rates. For this purpose, the GST Council previously deployed a committee or team of GST Council members under the leadership of Karnataka Chief Minister Shri Basavaraj Bommai to study the GST rate rejig need issues and resolutions. The committee has had several meetups in the past and had its leader meet the Union FM a week before to discuss the progress made in the GST rate rejig study.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, don’t hesitate to contact the writer at annapoorna.m@cleartax.in.
Annapoorna, popularly known as Anna, is an aspiring Chartered Accountant with a flair for GST. She spends most of her day Singing hymns to the tune of jee-es-tee! Well, not most of her day, just now and then.
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