Goods and Services Tax (GST)

“I take extreme pride to say that Council has applied its mind at various levels,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Beginning 1 July 2022, GST will be payable on renting residential property to a person registered under GST. However, if the property is rented to an unregistered person, GST would not be charged.

India’s GST Council, the apex decision-making body of the indirect tax regime that completes five years this week, is meeting in Chandigarh on June 28-29.

Chartered accountants struggle in filing GST returns five years after the introduction of the tax, billed as the single biggest taxation reform in independent India.

The 47th meeting of the GST Council, headed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising representatives of all states and UTs, is scheduled for June 28-29.

GST collections crossed Rs 1.40 lakh crore mark for the third consecutive month in May, as per latest government data.

The GST council last cut the rate on lithium-ion batteries from 28 per cent to 18 per cent in 2018.

In an instruction, the GST investigation office also asked chief commissioners to take "strict disciplinary action" against officers for using force or coercion for getting the tax due amount deposited during search or inspection or investigation.

The Congress leader on Sunday wrote in this connection to the CMs of Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, BJP ruled states- Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana – as well as Bihar, where the saffron party is a ruling alliance partner.

The Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) has been assigned the task to select the GSTINs registered with central tax authorities, whose returns are to be scrutinised, and to communicate the same to the field officers from time to time.

The finance minister said the budget was prepared with the objective of “nava Kerala nirmanam” (new Kerala development) with the aim of accelerating growth and ensuring environmental conservation, and sustainability in development and social justice.

Natural gas is currently outside the ambit of GST, and existing legacy taxes — central excise duty, state VAT, central sales tax — continue to be applicable on the fuel.

The GST rate hike on textiles from 5 percent to 12 percent was to come into effect from January 1. The Council however did not take a similar decision for footwear, GST rates on which are still expected to rise from the first day of the new year.

In the pre-budget meeting chaired by Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman, states like Gujarat, West Bengal, Delhi, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu said that they are not in favour of a hike in GST rate on textiles to 12 per cent, from 5 per cent currently, with effect from January 1, 2022.

With this, the total amount of compensation released to the States and UTs so far -- including the aforesaid amount during the FY2021-22 -- is Rs. 60,000 crore.

This takes the total GST collection for the first half of fiscal year 2021-22 (April-September) to Rs 6.82 lakh crore.

This council meeting is the first in person meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the country.

The GST Council had already exempted the Covid-related materials like oxygen and its equipment, ventilators, remdesivir and other essential medicines, Covid testing kits, pulse oximeter etc from the GST till August 31, 2021.

The GST on ventilators, medical-grade oxygen, COVID-19 testing kits, oxygen concentrators, high flow nasal canula device, pulse oximeters and BiPAP machine have been brought down to 5 percent from 12 percent at present.

The items whose GST rates would be examined by the group include medical grade oxygen, oxygen concentrators, pulse oximeters, N95 masks, ventilators, certain diagnostic markers test kits and COVID-19 vaccines.