31ST COUNCIL MEETING-GST
31 st GST Council-A Quick Review
31 st GST Council held on 22 nd of December 2018 in New Delhi took some decisions regarding changes in GST rates on Goods & Services. The Changes have been presented here for easy Understanding.
Reduction in GST rates/exemptions on services:
GST rate on Cinema tickets above Rs. 100 -28% to 18% and on cinema tickets upto Rs. 100 from 18% to 12%.
GST rate on third party insurance premium of goods carrying vehicles shall be reduced from 18% to 12%
Services supplied by banks to Basic Saving Bank Deposit (BSBD) account holders under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) shall be exempted.
Air travel of pilgrims by non-scheduled/charter operations, for religious pilgrimage facilitated by the Government of India under bilateral arrangements shall attract the same rate of GST as applicable to similar flights in Economy class (i.e. 5% with ITC of input services).
Services provided by GTA to Government departments / local authorities which have taken registration only for the purpose of deducting tax – Exempt from GST
Services provided by Central or State Government or Union Territory Government to their undertakings or PSUs by way of guaranteeing loans taken by them from financial institutions and banks – Exempt from GST
New & Simplified Returns:
New & Simplified return filing system to be introduced on trial basis from 01.04.2019 and on mandatory basis from 01.07.2019. GST Council in its 27th meeting held on 4th May, 2018 had approved the basic principles of GST return design. Now in its 28th meeting held on 21st July, 2018, GST Council approved the key features and new format of the GST returns.
Dates Extension:
Annual Returns & GST Audit: The due date for furnishing Form GSTR 9, GSTR 9A & GSTR 9C extended for the financial Year 17-18 shall be further extended till 30 th June 2019. – Currently the news is GSTR-9 & GSTR-9C will be available on the portal by 31st jan 2019.
E-commerce Operator: The due date for furnishing Form GSTR 8 by e-commerce operators for the months of October, November and December 2018 shall be extended till 31st January 2019.
Form GST ITC-04(Job work): The due date for submitting FORM GST ITC-04 for the period July 2017 to December 2018 shall be extended till 31.03.2019.
For availing ITC on supplies: The last date to claim ITC in relation to invoices issued by the supplier during FY 2017-18 by the recipient has been extended from GSTR 3B of September 2018 to GSTR 3B of March 2019.
Other Important Announcements:
Single Cash Ledger: All cash ledgers of each tax head (i.e. CGST, IGST, SGST/UTGST) would be combined into a single cash ledger, the modalities for implementation would be finalized in consultation with GSTN and accounting authorities.
Single Authority for Refund: A scheme of single authority for disbursement of the refund amount sanctioned by either the Centre or the State tax authorities would be implemented on pilot basis.
HSN Code for Inward Supplies: HSN code may be declared only for those inward supplies whose value independently accounts for 10% or more of the total value of inward supplies.
Formats of GSTR 9 & 9C: Clarificatory changes in the formats/instructions of GSTR-9 & GSTR-9C.Amendment of headings in the forms to specify that the return in FORM GSTR-9 & FORM GSTR-9A would be in respect of supplies etc. ‘made during the year’ and not ‘as declared in returns filed during the year’.
Late Fee Waiver: Late fee shall be completely waived for all taxpayers in case FORM GSTR-1, FORM GSTR-3B & FORM GSTR-4 for the months / quarters July, 2017 to September, 2018, are furnished after 22.12.2018 but on or before 31.03.2019.
E-way Bill Blocking: Taxpayers who have not filed the returns for two consecutive tax periods shall be restricted from generating e-way bills. This provision shall be made effective once the required functionality is made available.
Constitution of Centralized AAAR: Creation of Centralized Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling to deal with conflicting decisions between two or more State AAAR on the same issue
Interest only on Net Tax Liability – Interest will now be charged only on the net tax liability of the taxpayer, after taking into account the admissible input tax credit. In other words, interest will be levied only on the amount payable through the electronic cash ledger.
OTHERS:
All returns in FORM GSTR-1 & FORM GSTR-3B have to be filed before filing of FORM GSTR-9 & FORM GSTR-9C.
All returns in FORM GSTR-4 have to be filed before filing of FORM GSTR-9A.
FORM GST DRC-03: Additional payments, if any, required to be paid can be done through FORM GST DRC-03 only in cash.
ITC cannot be availed through FORM GSTR-9 & FORM GSTR-9C.
All invoices pertaining to previous FY (irrespective of month in which such invoice is reported in FORM GSTR-1) would be auto-populated in Table 8A of FORM GSTR-9.
Value of ‘non-GST supply’ shall also include the value of ‘no supply’ and may be reported in Table 5D, 5E and 5F of FORM GSTR-9.
Documents/invoices in FORM GST RFD-01A – uploaded electronically
All the supporting documents/invoices in relation to a claim for refund in FORM GST RFD- 01A shall be uploaded electronically on the common portal at the time of filing of the refund application itself, thereby obviating the need for a taxpayer to physically visit a tax office for submission of a refund application. GSTN will enable this functionality on the common portal shortly.
Types of Refunds (FORM GST RFD-01A):
Refund on account of Assessment/Provisional Assessment/Appeal/Any Other Order
Tax paid on an intra-State supply which is subsequently held to be inter-State supply and vice-versa
Excess payment of Tax; and
Any other refund.
Clarifications shall be issued on certain refund related matters like refund of ITC accumulated on account of inverted duty structure, disbursal of refunds within the stipulated time, time allowed for availment of ITC on invoices, refund of accumulated ITC of compensation, cess etc.
Thus, all these recommendations are bound to improve life for the consumer as well as of various business sectors.
