Highlights of 39th GST Council Meeting

With the introduction of the Goods & Services Tax Regime, the government has progressed towards implementing “One nation, One Market” by notifying one single indirect tax subsuming multiple indirect taxes. Classification of initiatives, measures, exemptions, and exceptions for specified persons have been considered and adopted. In this write-up, highlights of the meeting of 39thGST Council meeting held in the month of March 2020 notified changes as under-

Deferment of Initiatives:

  • The registered persons falling in the category of the insurance company, banking company, financial institution, non-banking financial institution, GTA, passenger transportation service, etc. be exempted from issuing e-invoices.
  • Such defined registered persons will be exempted from capturing dynamic QR code.
  • The dates for implementation of e-invoicing and QR Codes to be extended to 01st October 2020.
  • The e-Wallet scheme finalization has been deferred up to 31st March 2021.
  • The exemptions from Integrated GST and cess on the imports made under the AA/EPCG/EOU schemes deferred up to 31st March 2021.Whereas the present return system  (GSTR1, GSTR2A, GSTR3B shall remain the same.

Relief Measures:

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  • To curb fake invoicing and fraudulent passing of Input Tax Credit-
    An initiative is taken in terms of restrictions to be imposed on the passing of the Input Tax Credit in case of new GST registrations:
  • Physical verification of premises; and
  • Financial KYC of the registered person.
  • A special procedure entity under IRP under IBC Code:

A special procedure shall be notified for persons fulfilling following conditions to make them GST compliant entities/individuals as the case may be:

  • Registered persons who are corporate debtors under the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016; and
    • Such registered persons are undergoing the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP).
  • The refund of GST paid can be claimed in cash as well as credit in case of excess payments of taxes.
  • The Adhar based authentication shall be functioning shortly.
  • The “Know Your Supplier” functionality has been recommended in the meeting which shall enable the stakeholders to know the basic details of suppliers.

Extensions & Exemptions:

The mandatory requirement of filing of Annual return by small taxpayers for FY 2018-19 has been extended till 30th June 2020.

  • Exemption for a registered person who is not a composition taxpayer and could get avail the benefit of notification of registration under such scheme:

The requirement of furnishing FORM GSTR-1 for 2019-20 to be waived for such taxpayers under notification No. 2/2019-Central Tax (Rate) dated 07th March 2019 by filing FORM CMP-02. 

GST Rates

The Meeting has notified changes to the GST rates in case of such specified items:

Item Present Rate New Rate
Mobile Phones & specified parts 12% 18%
Handmade Matches 5% 12%
Other than handmade Matches 18% 12%
Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) services 18% 5%

Further, the calculation of interest on delayed payment shall be calculated at the Net Tax liability under section 50 of the Central GST Act, which shall have effect retrospectively from 01st July 2017.

Therefore, the GST council meetings have been very active in providing the measures, regulating the taxability and simplifying the procedure and removing hindrance in continuing any procedure as faced by different registered persons and subsequent steps are taken forward to remove the same.

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