GST Council Nears Consensus on Establishment of GST Appellate Tribunal in 2023.
The GST Council has reached broad agreement on the establishment of a GST Appellate Tribunal, which is likely to be included in the Finance Bill 2023. The GST Council met on February 18, 2023, and discussed, among other things, the establishment of appellate tribunals and mechanisms to combat tax evasion in pan masala and gutkha businesses.
The 49th meeting of the GST Council was presided over by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
“We had a very detailed day-long meeting,” Ms. Sitharaman said. The atmosphere was completely cordial, and there was a spirit of collaboration, as a result of which two GOM reports were accepted. One of them has been slightly modified, and the language has been altered.
“Today, the entire pending GST compensation due to the states is being cleared,” the finance minister stated. Even though it is not yet available in the GST Compensation Fund, the entire pending amount of GST compensation of Rs 16,982 crore for June 2022 will be cleared and managed to recover from prospective cess collections after the payment is made from the central exchequer.
“However apart from that, the Center will clear additional compensation claims being made by states where the Accountant General has certified them,” she said. This is a total of Rs. 16,524 crores.
“The first decision we made today is related to GST rates on Raab—we will reduce the GST rate on Raab from 18% to zero,” Ms. Sitharaman continued. had been It costs 5% more if it is sold loose than if it is pre-packaged and labelled. Then there was much debate about pencil sharpeners, which were reduced from 18% to 12%.
“Under certain conditions, information logs and GPS trackers used for cartons will be reduced from 18% to 0%,” Ms. Sitharaman said. The services of courts and tribunals will be taxed through a duty drawback mechanism. A number of other legal and procedural decisions were made.
“It has been decided to justify the late filing fee for small taxpayers with an aggregated attrition rate of Rs 20 crore and recorded entities with dropout rates from Rs 5 crore to Rs 20 crore,” said Finance Minister P Chidambaram. A legalization system is also being launched in exchange for some returns.
“The GoM report on the founding of the GST Appellate Tribunal has been approved with minor language in context, which will be shared with the states tomorrow, after which the final draught for the tribunal’s establishment will be prepared,” he said. The GST Council was formed. Because the Council will not meet for a long time, the Speaker is authorized to make the final decision and incorporate it into the Finance Bill.
“Now that the GST Council has agreed on the tribunal, the text will be finalized by March 3 so that the tribunal can be established with this year’s Finance Bill,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
