Exemption for student hostels, Railway services

53RD GST COUNCIL MEETING

The GST Council on Saturday decided to tweak tax rates on items, including accommodation services for students and solar cookers, and took a host of taxpayer-friendly measures including waiver of interest and penalty for demand notices issued in the first three years of GST rollout.

Briefing reporters after the 53rd GST Council meeting, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Council has recommended to roll-out the biometric-based Aadhaar authentication of registration applicants on pan-India basis in a phased manner. This will help check fraudulent registration done to avail input tax credit and evade taxes.

To reduce litigation, the Council decided to fix a monetary limit for tax officers to file appeals before the GST Appellate Tribunal, the High Court and the Supreme Court at Rs 20 lakh, Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore, respectively.

It also recommended reduction of the quantum of predeposit required to be paid by taxpayers for filing of appeals under Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The maximum amount of pre-deposit for filing appeal with the appellate authority has been reduced from Rs 25 crore CGST and SGST each to Rs 20 crores CGST and SGST each. This will help ease cash flow and working capital blockage for the taxpayers.

"The 53rd GST Council meeting has taken a number of decisions on trade facilitation, easing compliance burden and giving relief to taxpayers in terms of easing compliance," Sitharaman said.

The Minister said the next meeting of the GST Council will be held in August in which the Group of Ministers (GOM) on GST rate rationalisation under Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sumant Chaudhary, will give a presentation on the status of the work and aspects covered by the panel and work pending before the panel.