GST Council decides to decriminalise certain offences, no tax rate increase

New Delhi: In a significant move to facilitate trade, the GST Council chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday decided to decriminalise certain offences and doubled the threshold for launching prosecution to Rs 2 crore under GST. The all-powerful Council also decided to reduce the compounding amount from the present range of 50% to 150% of tax amount to the range of 25% to 100%.
Briefing the media after the 48th GST Council meet here today, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that no new tax has been brought on any item. She said that the government is working to widen the GST base across all levels.
The Minister said that there were as many as 15 items on the agenda of the GST Council meet today and eight of them were taken up. The remaining items would be taken up in the next Council meeting which could be held in person.
Sitharaman said that there were two GoM (Group of Ministers) issues which were to be discussed but could not be taken up today.
“One GoM issue was related to capacity based taxation on tobacco and gutkha, and the other relating to setting up of (GST) tribunal,” she said.Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said that the Council decided to cut GST on husk of pulses to nil from 5%. The GST Council also recommended to reduce GST on ethyl alcohol supplied to refineries for blending with petrol recommended to 5% from 18%. Commenting on the GST Council decisions, M S Mani, Senior Director, Indirect Tax, Deloitte India said, “While the increase in prosecution threshold was expected, it is necessary to gradually increase it further so that only very serious high value cases are subjected to the rigours of prosecution.”