Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the end result of the 47th Goods and service Tax (GST) Council meeting on Wednesday. From revising rates of assorted items to levying an uniform GST rates, several key issues has been discussed during the two-day meeting in Chandigarh. “Highlight of this meeting was that we could consider, discuss and choose on four Group of Ministers (GoM) reports on exemptions, correction of inverted duty structure, minister of finance,” said while announcing the end result of the 47th GST meeting.
GST Council brought pre-packaged and labelled food items like wheat flour, dry cereal, curd/lassi/buttermilk and paneer under the GST regime, consistent with sources. The council approved a proposal to levy a 12 per cent tax on hotel rooms charging below Rs 1,000 per day.
The GST Council also decided to impose a five per cent GST without input tax credit on hospital rooms with rent above Rs 5,000, excluding intensive care units (ICUs). “Significant progress has been made during this very significant meeting of the GST Council. The correction of inverted duty structure on several items and removal of exemptions supported the recommendations of the GoM on rate rationalization is nice to note,” said Mahesh Jaising, Partner and leader, indirect tax, Deloitte India “We will now need to await the ultimate report on the particular rate rejig to be submitted for discussion before the council,” he added. The council on Wednesday deferred a call to implement 28 per cent GST on online gaming, casino and race courses, Sitharaman mentioned. The council asked the Group of Ministers to re-examine the problems in its terms of reference supported further inputs from states and submit its report within July 15.
The GST Council will meet again at the starting of the subsequent month to debate this issue, minister of finance said. Providing an enormous relief to MSME’s, the Council has also extended the Rs 40-lakh threshold exemption for intra-state sales and therefore the Rs 1.5-crore threshold under composition scheme to online sellers.