CBIC Chief Outlines GST Council Decisions for Finance Bill 2024
New Delhi: Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) chief Sanjay Kumar Agarwal on Wednesday said that the decisions taken at the GST Council meeting last month, like an amnesty scheme for initial years of rollout and sunset date for profiteering complaints, would be incorporated into the Finance Bill to be tabled in Parliament, along with the Budget later this month.
The full Budget for 2024-25 fiscal of Modi 3.0 is expected to be presented in Parliament later this month. Finance Bill, 2024, will be tabled as part of the budgetary exercise incorporating in detail the changes in direct and indirect taxes proposed in Budget. The 53rd meeting of the GST Council, comprising Centre and all the state finance ministers, was held on June 22.
Addressing the NACIN-Bhopal's flagship programme on GST, Agarwal said at the 53rd GST Council meeting rate rationalisation was proposed on some goods and services, while in some cases clarifications have been issued. “For cases of dispute resolution and settlement, which have arisen at the time of GST rollout during the challenges faced by small businesses, on those issues several decisions have been taken which may be become part of the Finance Bill so that necessary changes can be brought in the GST law,” Agarwal said.
The Council, among other things, had approved amendment to law to insert a new Section 11A in Central GST Act to give powers to the government to allow regularisation of non-levy or short levy of GST, where tax was being short paid or not paid due to common trade practices. The GST Council also recommended amending Section 112 of the CGST Act, 2017 to allow the three-month period for filing appeals before the appellate tribunal to start from a date to be notified by the central government in respect of appeal/revision orders passed before the date of said notification.
This would give sufficient time to taxpayers to file appeal before the appellate tribunal in the pending cases. In a taxpayer-friendly move, the council also decided to waive interest and penalties for demand notices issued under Section 73 of the CGST Act (for cases not involving fraud, suppression or wilful misstatement) for 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, if the full tax demanded is paid by March 31, 2025.
Another law amendment approved by the Council pertains to Section 171 and Section 109 of CGST Act, 2017 to provide a sunset clause for anti-profiteering under GST and to provide for handling of anti-profiteering cases by the principal bench of GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT). The council has also recommended the sunset date of April 1, 2025 for receipt of any new application regarding anti-profiteering.