• Notification Date: 16-12-2022
• Notification No: N/A

GST Council Meeting: Tax Rates on Various Items to be Revised This Week

The 48th GST Council Meeting is scheduled to take place on Saturday, December 17. This is likely to be the last GST Council meeting before the Union Budget 2023. Decriminalisation of offences, the setting up of an Appellate Tribunal, and the fitment committee’s pending recommendations are some of the important issues that are to be discussed in the meeting. Besides, the Council may also discuss tax rate changes on some items.  

Previously, the GST Council had decided to accept the group of ministers’ interim reports on the correction of duty inversion and exemption in the 47th meeting held in June 2022. Items under pre-packaged and pre-labelled retail packs, such as, curd, lassi, and butter milk, were also brought under GST.  

According to the experts, the Council may also discuss certain tax rate changes and system reforms for ease of compliance in the upcoming 48th meeting since this meeting is likely the last meeting prior to Union Budget 2023. The topic of GST rate rationalisation might also be discussed. 

The GST Council is headed by the Union finance minister and comprises representatives of all states and UTs. The Council is going to conduct its 48th meeting this week (December 17) via videoconferencing. 

Ankur Gupta, the Practice leader (indirect tax) at SW India, said that there might not be much changes on the rate front due to inflationary pressure, except for health services where rates could decrease from 18 per cent to 12 per cent. He added that this would be the last Council meeting for the year. Hence, a few important outcomes are expected out of this meeting. There should be some update based on reports of GoMs rate and valuation on casino and online games along with capacity-based levy on certain tobacco products. 

Gupta also pointed out that there might be significant changes on the administrative front. There might be a concrete plan on setting up the GST Tribunal and the decriminalisation of offences under GST. Also, there might be some discussion on guidelines or the role of CCI as it is now the anti-profiteering authority under GST. Moreover, there are no industry-specific guidelines for calculating the price reduction extent warranted by the tax rate cuts. Hence, it would be difficult for CCI to conclude the cases. 

According to report, the government will most probably revisit the issue of increase in GST on scientific equipment from 5 per cent to 18 per cent, which had been criticised by the scientific community over its potential impact on India’s research capabilities. 

In the last meeting, the Council recommended to revise the scope of exemption to exclude from it pre-packaged and pre-labelled retail packs, including curd, lassi and butter milk. But GST was exempted on specified food items and grains, etc, when not branded, or right on the brand has been foregone. Rates on some goods and services were also changed in the previous meeting.