Short Comilation of Updates from today’s GST Council meet on 22nd Dec 2018.
After a period of nearly 5 months, the GST Council met today at New Delhi to resolve several pending matters. Understanding the problems faced by the businesses, the Council relaxed various provisions and reduced tax rates on several items. Key updates from today’s council meet are as follows.
a. Reduction of tax rates of following items have been reduced
Gear boxes
Monitors and TVs
Retreaded Tyres
Power banks of Lithium ion batteries
Digital cameras
Video Game consoles
Parts of carriages for disabled persons
Cork and articles of cork
Music books
Branded Frozen Vegetables
For details on the same, refer following link. http://pib.nic.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1557065
b. Relaxation in Annual Return
The due date of annual return has been further extended to June 30, 2019 from March 31, 2019 as announced earlier. The Council has also relaxed provisions relating to reporting of HSN and clarified several other provisions as well.
c. ITC for FY 2017-18 can be availed till March 31, 2019
The Council also extended the due date for availing Input Tax Credit on supplies received during FY 2017-18 from Sept 30, 2018 to March 31, 2019. This will provide significant relief to suppliers who missed on taking credits during that period. However, the Council did not allow similar relief for credit notes relating to supplies made during FY 2017-18.
d. Refunds simplified
The process of applying for refund is being simplified with all relevant documents to be submitted online only and no visit required to the tax office. The Council has also recommended formation of single authority for disbursement of refund amount. Other processes in refund submission are being simplified and concerns of the suppliers would be clarified also.
e. Late fee amnesty
The Council has also allowed one time amnesty to all those suppliers who have not been able to file their returns for the period from July 2017 to Sept 2018 yet. No late fee would be levied on such suppliers if they furnish their returns now before March 31, 2019. However, the waiver is not available to those assesses who have already filed their returns.
Other Key Updates
f. The Council has also shared that the segregated cash ledgers (tax, late fee, penalty, etc) would now merge into one cash ledger for each tax head. Further, the new return filing system proposed earlier will be tested on trial basis from April 1, 2019.
g. The Council has also allowed approval for creation of Centralised Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling to deal with conflicting decisions of two State AARs.
h. In principle approval has also been given for charging interest on the amount net of input tax credit where the supplier has failed to deposit the tax in a timely manner.
