49th GST Council Meeting Highlights: Compensation to states cleared, rate cuts announced, and more

The live blog session has concluded. For more news, views and updates, stay tuned withMoneycontrol.com.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on February 18 that the entire outstanding GST (goods and services tax) compensation cess dues to states for the five year period will be cleared today with the payment of Rs 16,982 cr remaining for June 2022 and an additional Rs 16,524 cr to six states.

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"Kudos to the GST Council for forging consensus on the much-delayed commission of Appellate Tribunal with some amendments in the structure. So far as the levy on PAN masala and gutka goes, the proven tool of MRP-based Cess has been brought back," commented Shailendra Kumar, Chairman, TIOL Knowledge Foundation, a fiscal think tank.

"Thousands of matters have already piled up as pending to be heard by Tribunals in the last five years and the setting up of Tribunals is the need of the hour from the last two years now. The matter of amendment for setting up of GST Tribunals would be made in Finance Bill 2023 itself and the same would be enacted with The Finance Act 2023... itdoes not seem that the GSTAT will be operational before the end of 2023," said Vivek Jalan, Partner, Tax Connect Advisory, a multi-disciplinary tax consultancy firm.

Proposal from the industry has been sent to the fitment committee for a discussion, sources add

-Entire Rs 16,982 crore of GST compensation cess to states for June 2022 to be cleared today

-Decision on GST Appellate Tribunal accepted with change in language. The modification in draft will be circulated in next 5-6 days

-By early March, the final report on appellate tribunal likely to be passed by Finance Minister: Govt source to Moneycontrol

-GST Council decides to reduce GST on pencil sharpeners, and certain tracking devices

-Exemption on coal rejects supplied by and to the washeries approved by Council

-GST on a type of liquid jaggery reduced to nil from 18% if its loose. If its pre-packaged and labelled, the tax rate on this will be 5%, nil if it is loose

-GoM report on taxation for pan masala accepted

-GST Council also recommended rationalisation of late fee for delayed filing of annual returns

-No recommendation for fitment committee for SUVs and MUVs

We also released Rs 16,524 crore to six states based on the AG certificates we have received: FM Sitharaman

"We will continue clearing any pending compensation cess amounts of states as and when they give their AG certificates. But even when in cases AG certification has not been received, we have released 90% of the monthly compensation cess amount. When we get the AG certification from the states, we will reconcile the remaining amount and release it to the states."

GoM report on online gaming could not be taken up at today’s meeting as the chair of the GoM, Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma is there and he was unable to come because of the elections in the state: FM Sitharaman

Decision on GST Appellate Tribunal accepted with change in language. The modification in draft will be circulated in next 5-6 days, says FM

On SUVs and MUVs, there was no recommendation from the fitment committee as they weren’t able to arrive at a decision. The matter will be re-looked and presented at the next Council meeting: Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra during the press conference.

For June 2022, 50% of the provisional GST compensation cess amount was released earlier. Now, we are releasing 50% amounting to Rs 16,982 crore. This will be from the funds of the Centre, which will be recouped later from the cess:RevenueSecretary SanjayMalhotra

FM: GoM report on capacity based taxation for pan masala has been accepted

FM: GoM on appellate tribunals approved with certain modifications

FM: A final draft of GoM on appellate tribunal will be sent to members in a few days

GST on a type of liquid jaggery reduced to nil from 18% if its loose. If its pre-packaged and labelled, the tax rate on this will be 5%, nil if it is losse: FM

Raab is a kind of liquid jaggery which is so typical to Uttar Pradesh & other jaggery-producing states: FM

GST Council decided to tax services supplied by courts and tribunals under the reverse charge mechanism: FM