GSTR-9: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the GST Council meeting in New Delhi. For the first time since it was formed, the 38th GST Council voted to agree to have a single rate on lotteries. Previously decisions were taken unanimously.

The major decisions taken by GST Council at its 38th meeting are:

• The due date for the GSTR 9 and GSTR 9C return filing for 2017-18 has been extended from 31 December 2019 to 31 January 2020.

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• Grievance Redressal Committees (GRC) will be set up at the Zonal / State level with CGST and SGST officers as well as trade and industry members and other GST stakeholders (GST practitioners and GSTN, etc.). Such committees will discuss concerns at the Zonal / State level of the particular / general nature of taxpayers.

• Waiver of the late fee of GSTR-1 for all taxpayers whose filing is pending from July 2017 to November 2019, if the same is filed by 10.01.2020.

Deemed Supply under GST in India

• E-way Bill shall be blocked for taxpayers who did not submit their Form GSTR-1 for two tax periods.

• The input tax credit to recipient for invoices or debit notes that are not reflected in his Form GSTR-2A shall be limited to 10% of the eligible credit (before it was 20%) available for invoices or debit notes reflected in his Form GSTR-2A.

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• Appropriate action to be taken to block fraudulently availment of input tax credit in certain situations to check the risk of fake invoices.

• A Standard Operating Procedure for Tax Officers would be provided for the action to be taken in the cases where Form GSTR 3B returns are not filed.

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• Due date for filing GST returns to be extended in respect of a few North Eastern States for the month of November 2019.

• The Council also approved various amendments to the law that will be introduced in the 2020 budget.

• Exemption to an entity with 20 percent or more ownership of central or state government from the upfront amount payable for long-term lease of industrial / financial infrastructure plots. The waiver is currently available to an entity that controls 50% or more of central or state government property. The change will take effect from 1 January 2020.

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• To charge a single rate of 28 percent GST on both state run and state authorized lottery. The change will take effect from March 1st, 2020.

• The Council also considered the rate of GST on woven and non-woven bags and bags of polyethylene or polypropylene strips or the like, whether or not laminated, of a kind used for packing of goods (HSN code 3923/6305) in view of the requests received after the last meeting recommended changes to such goods and recommended raising the GST to a uniform rate of 18% (from 12%) The change will take effect from 1 January 2020.

Nil Rated, Zero Rated, Non-Taxable and Exempted Supply

Presentation were made before the Council on enhancement of revenue but nothing relevant to rate hike was part of the presentation. Data on revenue to be analyzed before making any decision. The Centre has set a target of Rs 1.10 lakh crore a month for the remaining four months of the current fiscal. The government had cleared the pending GST compensation upto the amount of Rs 35,298 crore only a few days before the Council meeting. A number of states, particularly the opposition-ruled ones, had raised the issue of pending GST compensation for the months of August-September. The Centre is yet to clear the compensation for the months of October-November.