By Neha Yadav
Published Jun 23, 2024

Hindustan Times
In Focus

Photo Credits: ANI

GST Council meet: 10 big announcements by FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Nirmala Sitharaman made top announcements during a press briefing after the GST Council meeting on June 22. Here are the top 10 announcements.

The finance minister announced biometric-based Aadhar authentication to check fake invoicing.

The GST Council recommended extending the time for small taxpayers to submit their returns from April 30 to June 30.

The Council also recommended waiving interest and penalties for demand notices issued under Section 73 of the GST Act, including cases not involving fraud, suppression, or misstatements.

Services provided by Indian Railways like platform ticket have been exempted from GST.

Trade facilitation, easing compliance burden, and giving relief to taxpayers in terms of compliance easing out. This will benefit the traders, MSMEs, and taxpayers.

The time limit to avail input tax credit in respect of any invoice or debit note under section 16(4) of the CGST Act filed up to 30-11-2021 for the financial years 17-18, 18-19, 19-20, and 20-21 may be deemed to be 2011 to 2021.

The GST Council recommended monetary limits for filing appeals by the department in various courts.

The council recommended a monetary limit of 20 lakh for the GST appellate tribunal, 1 crore for the High Court and 2 crore for the Supreme Court for filing appeals by the department, in order to reduce government litigation.

The maximum amount for pre-deposit for filing appeal before the appellate authority shall be reduced from 25 crores CGST and 25 crores SGST to 20 crore CGST and 20 SGST.

The provisions of the CGST Act to provide three months for filing appeals in the GST appellate tribunal will be amended.

The president of the tribunal has assumed office and the said period for filing tax filing appealed by the taxpayers will expire on 5 August 2024.