GST Council set to meet on September 12; ITC norms, state revenues likely on agenda

Following a gap of a year, the Goods and Services Tax Council is set to meet on September 12 in New Delhi. It will be preceded by an officers’ meeting on September 11, as per an official memorandum.

The meeting comes a year after the last meeting of the GST Council on 3 when it had proposals for rate rationalisation and revamp of procedural norms as part of GST 2.0. Typically, the Council is expected to meet once every quarter.

There have been expectations that the Council led by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would meet now that state assembly elections and the Monsoon Session of Parliament are also over.

The Council is expected to take forward several measures from its last meeting on procedural relaxations and reforms including easier registration and audit for businesses as well as issues around input tax credit for certain goods and services.

The Council is also likely to review the revenue position of states and the Centre following the rate rationalisation last year. Further, there has also been clamour from certain sections of industry for a review of GST rates on their goods and services but it is unclear if the Council will consider these immediately.

While the agenda of the meeting of the Council is yet to be finalised, the Council is also likely to take stock of the operationalisation and functioning of the GST Appellate Tribunal.

“The Council should revisit one of the most litigated conditions governing input tax credit (ITC). The present framework links a recipient's entitlement to ITC with the supplier's deposit of tax into the Government treasury, despite the recipient having little practical ability to monitor such compliance,” said Manoj Mishra, Partner and Tax Controversary Management Leader, Grant Thornton Bharat.

The Council should prioritise reducing litigation by addressing genuine interpretational disputes, one of the closely watched expectations being the Supreme Court's decision in Gameskraft, he further noted.