29th GST Council Meeting – Key Highlights & Decisions

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 :

1. A group of ministers formed to study and address the issues related to MSMEs.

2. 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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For Further Reading and Understanding on GST Council meets, check out:

• 28th GST Council meeting
• 27th GST Council Meeting
• 26th GST Council Meeting
• 25th GST Council Meeting