Expectations from 35th GST Council Meeting

Ahead of the union budget 2019, the all-powerful Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting shall be held on June 21 at new delhi under the chairmanship of the newly elected union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

This will be the first council meeting chaired by newly elected union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. A lot of expectations piled up over months concerning various indirect tax issues will be addressed in this meeting.

The Expectations from 32nd GST Council Meeting are given below:

1. Extension of Filing of GST Annual Return in form GSTR-9

Preparation of GSTR-9 requires significant effort and therefore its filing must be simple. Taxpayers still have confusion about this form and facing problem while filing GSTR-9. Therefore it is expected that GST Council may extend due date of Filing GSTR-9 for FY 2017-18.

2. Proposal to extend the tenure of NAA

The two-year tenure ofNational Anti-profiteering Authority(NAA) that ends on 30 November 2019 may be extended by one more year till 30 November 2020. Finance Ministry is of the view that NAA should be given an extension of one year till November 30, 2020. The authority continues to receive complaints of profiteering by companies. The official said that the NAA is keen for a two-year extension. However, final call will be taken by the GST Council.

3. Deciding the applicability of e-invoicing

GST Council may put a turnover threshold for the entities engaged in business-to-business (B2B) sales in order to curb GST evasion. It is expected that GST Council meet may propose Rs 50 crore turnover threshold for entities to generate e-invoices for B2B sales on a centralised portal following which the entities with a turnover of more than Rs 50 crore would get a relief from double of uploading invoices.

4. E-way bills can be checked through theRFIDtagging mechanism

In a move to check evasion, the Council would also discuss on the proposal of integration of e-way bill with NHAI’s FASTag mechanism from April 1, 2020.Such an integration would help find the location of the vehicle and when and how many times it has crossed NHAI’s toll plazas and restrict transporters from doing multiple trips by generating a single e-way bill.

5. Rate revision on the items falling under the highest tax slab of 28 per cent

Further, the GST Council may propose a rate revision on the items falling under the highest tax slab of 28 per cent, which is likely to benefit retail customers. There is a likelihood of a rate revision is on automobile products which are currently taxed at 28 per cent under the GST regime.