GST Council Meeting Underway for the First Time Post Lockdown

Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, the effect of COVID-19 on tax revenue can be reviewed in this meeting.

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The meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is going on in the midst of the Corona crisis. This is the 40th meeting of the GST Council. The meeting under the leadership of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is being done through video conferencing. This meeting is going to take place at a time when the country is suffering from Corona. In such a situation, the corona and its effect will be in the center of the meeting. This is the 40th meeting of the GST Council; the meeting is going through video conferencing.

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What issue will be discussed:

The effect of COVID-19 on tax revenue is expected to be discussed in this meeting. Apart from this, a decision can be taken on the framework of payment of compensation to the states. At the same time, the council will also consider waiving the late fee for not filing GST returns during August 2017 to January 2020.

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No Discussions on Tax slab changes:

Although there will be no discussion on the change in tax slabs in this meeting, but the implementation of GST is expected to consider ways of raising money to compensate the revenue loss to the states. Let us know that the last meeting of the GST Council was held on 14 March. In this meeting, Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the central government will look into the legal validity of raising the debt from the market to meet the compensation requirements of the states.

GST collection data not released:

The government has not released GST collection data for the months of April and May due to reduction in tax collection and extending the date of filing GST returns. Earlier, in March, the GST collection had come down to Rs 97,597 crore. Recently, Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey had told that the correct picture on the figures of GST collection will be available only till June 30.

Explaining the reason for this, Pandey said, "The date of submission of GST return has been extended. We have said that the returns can be submitted by June. Taxpayers with a turnover of more than five Crore rupees have also got additional time. He said that after extending the deadline, the correct picture of revenue collection will emerge only till June 30.