29th GST Council Meeting – Key Highlights & Decisions

Updated on: Jul 21st, 2021

2 min read

In this article , you will get to know about the key highlights and decisions made in the 29th GST Council Meeting.

Latest Updates

24th June 2022
The 47th GST Council meeting was held on the 28th and 29th of June 2022 in Chandigarh. Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman chaired this meeting and made recommendations to revise rates for revenue augmentation and correction of inversion while pruning the GST exemption list. Compliance relief was granted to e-commerce suppliers and composition taxpayers.

29th December 2021
The 46th GST Council meeting was held on 31st December 2021 in New Delhi. Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman led meeting has decided to defer the GST rate hike to 12% for textiles.

1st September 2021
45th GST Council meeting was held on 17th September 2021. Tax concessions on COVID-19 essentials got extended, Matter on GST compensation to states was taken up, correction of inverted tax structure, etc were on the agenda.

28th May 2021
43rd GST Council meeting took place on 28th May 2021. The Council approved the GST amnesty scheme to be re-introduced, the late fee was rationalised for all taxpayers, especially for small taxpayers and IGST is exempted on import of COVID treating equipment and relief materials up to 31st August 2021.

29th GST council meeting was held on 4th of August 2018 (i.e Saturday) in New Delhi. Shri Piyush Goyal chaired the Meeting and addressed the Press meet around 5 p.m.

Highlights of the meeting

Digital Payments

1. Incentives in the form cashback will be offered on the GST component of the bill for payments made digitally. 2. Digital modes will include payments through – a. Rupay Debit card b. BHIM UPI c. UPI Aadhaar d. USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) 3. A cashback of 20% on the GST component will be credited to the consumers, which will be limited to Rs. 100 only per transaction. 4. This will be a trial basis process by the GST council to check whether it increases the tax payment compliances or not. 5. It will not be a compulsory adoption by the states. The states will have to volunteer for these processes to be implemented.

MSMEs

A group of ministers formed to study and address the issues related to MSMEs.
This group will work in alignment with the law and fitment committee to address the concerns of this sector on GST compliances and procedures related to GST return filings.

Expectations of this GST Council meeting

1. To Boost MSMEs and Small Businesses: A lot of deliberations happened at 28th GST Council meeting on SME sector and this 29th GST Council meeting will be an extension of this discussion with further substantiation to proposals made earlier. With GST in place, Small and Medium Enterprises have been benefitted a lot with many compliance reliefs given in the form of threshold exemptions, Composition schemes, the Quarterly filing of the GST returns to mention a few. This meeting will be principally convened to discuss the various issues faced by Small Businesses and to promote employment and entrepreneurship in the SMEs sector. Following possibly on agenda for MSMEs:

To provide a threshold exemption of Rs 20 lakhs for Inter-state supplies.
To increase the exemption limit for compulsory generation of e-way bills to Rs 1 lakh or even being made exempt for movement within some States.
To bring down the tax rates for SME units manufacturing agro products to a maximum of 5%.
To sped-fasten the sanctioning of GST refunds particularly for this sector as it faces a slowdown scare due to working capital clogs.
To introduce a new definition to MSME from a turnover perspective to align it with GST laws.
To put an end to the disputes that arose during VAT regime and still pending closure. A clear call to be taken through a one-time resolution applicable to all States for this.

2. Improving outreach of Digital Payments facilities among Indians: Shri Piyush Goyal indicated that the popularity of various facilities like Rupay Debit card, BHIM app needs to grow among the middle-class and lower-class segment of Indian Population and this meeting will be facilitated to further discuss and decide on the proposals put forth by Shri Sushil Kumar Modi committee formed for Digital Payments.

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Quick Summary

The article provides a summary of key decisions made in various GST Council meetings, including amendments in rates, compliance reliefs, incentives for digital payments, and focus on MSMEs. It mentions expectations for boosting MSMEs and improving outreach of digital payments. The content highlights recent GST Council meetings and key topics discussed.