GST Council to meet on June 28-29 in Srinagar

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will meet on June 28-29 to deliberate on the way forward after end of the five-year compensation period for states on June 30, including rationalization of tax rates in a phased manner, as a multi-year goal due to inflationary concerns.

“The 47th meeting of the GST Council will be held on June 28-29, 2022 (Tuesday & Wednesday) in Srinagar,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s office tweeted on Thursday.

While a much-awaited restructuring of the GST slabs to raise the revenue-neutral rate (RNR), from a little over 11% now to 15.5%, could start in a small way this year in areas not prone to inflation, the GST Council will likely consider enforcing a ministerial panel’s recommendations on data analytics to tighten compliance and scrutiny of GST returns to augment revenues by plugging leakages.

It could consider raising the GST on online gaming from 18% to 28%, to bring the skill-game tax rate at par with chance games involving gambling and betting, sources said.

Ahead of the Council meeting, the group of ministers (GoM) reviewing the GST rates will meet virtually on Friday to discuss the proposed rejig in tax slabs, even as it may seek six more months to finalise its report.

Sources said the panel, headed by Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, will review the list of goods and services exempt under GST to expand the tax base and eliminate the breaking of the input tax credit (ITC) chain. Besides, it will look into the instances of an inverted duty structure to correct the inverted structure and recommend suitable rates to eliminate the inverted duty structure, as far as possible, to minimise instances of refund due to the inverted duty structure.

Under the GST compensation mechanism, which is constitutionally-guaranteed, state governments are assured 14% annual revenue growth for the first five years after the tax’s July 2017 launch.

The Council may also consider some modification in summary return and monthly tax payment form GSTR-3B with a view to check fake input tax credit claims and expedite settlement of genuine ones.