Finance minister Arun Jaitley and his counterparts will hold the 32nd meeting on Thursday. Major issues that will be discussed during the meeting include lowering of GST rates on under-construction flats and houses to 5 percent and raising the exception threshold from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 75 lakh for small and medium enterprises. Other agendas for today's GST Council meeting include masterpiece scheme for small suppliers, levying of disaster cess, and GST rates for the draw.
In its previous meeting, the GST Council had slashed tax rates on seven items beforehand placed in the highest tax slab. Rationalizing the 28 percent tax slab, the council had pruned the GST rates on six items to 18 percent slab and one item to five percent slab. In total, the panel had concentrated rates on 23 goods and services.
Earlier Jaitley had said that the next meeting would believe lowering tax rates on residential properties and raising the entrance limit for MSMEs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a public meeting in Agra on Wednesday, also said that he had urged the GST Council to raise the threshold limit for exemption from levy's registration to Rs 75 lakh. He also said that houses meant for the middle class should be clubbed in the 5 percent GST slab.
During the council's group of ministers' (GoM) meeting on Sunday, the members also discussed the threshold issue. While the Union Finance Ministry required raising the GST exception threshold limit for MSMEs on the lines of PM's recommendation, states like Bihar and Delhi pushed to raise the limit for Rs 50 lakh and Rs 40 lakh.
The members also opined to levy flat Rs 5,000 GST per year on businesses with revenue of Rs 50-60 lakh, while Rs 10,000 on those with Rs 60-75 lakh annual revenue, added the daily.
Currently, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is levied at 12 percent on payments made for under-construction property or ready-to-move-in flats where completion credential has not been issued at the time of sale. However, GST is not levied on buyers of real estate properties for which completion certificate has been issued at the time of sale.
