The GST Council held its 29th meeting on 4 August 2018 with a primary focus on addressing concerns of the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. The month of August also witnessed the debate on various issues relating to GST reaching the floor of the Parliament with the Lok Sabha debating and subsequently passing the GST amendment bills.

Top Trends

  • The 29th Council meeting was held on 4 August 2018 in New Delhi. Key decisions taken during the meeting are:

    • Incentives on digital payments in the form of 20% cash back of GST component to be introduced on Business to Consumer (B2C) transactions.
    • Ministerial panel has been set up to look into the issues being faced by the MSME sector due to the implementation of GST.

The Council in its 28th meeting held on 21 July 2018 had recommended amendments to the GST law. The Lok Sabha passed the GST amendment bills on 9 August 2018 approving the changes recommended by the Council and they have received the President's assent on 29 August 2018. However, the date for implementing the amendments is yet to be notified by the government.

The GST portal has introduced a new functionality to enable filing of single refund application for multiple tax periods on account of refund of accumulated Input Tax Credit (ITC) due to exports/supplies to Special Economic Zone (SEZ) without payment of tax.

Judicial Pronouncements

Compliance Chart for Upcoming GST Due Dates

Other Key Aspects

GST from a Macro Perspective

Revenue collections

The government's GST collections for August 2018 stood at INR 0.93 trillion. There has been a marginal dip of 2.61% in GST collections as compared to July 2018. The GST collections continue to be below the government's target of an average monthly collection of INR 1 trillion.

GST in the news

  • The Council in its next meeting is expected to deliberate on levying a special tax rate or cess to raise additional funds for flood-affected state of Kerala.
  • The National Anti-Profiteering Authority has started a helpline (011 - 21400643) to assist customers in registering complaints and resolving queries in relation to profiteering by companies by not passing on the benefits accrued because of the implementation of GST.
  • The government is considering matching of GST returns data with the Income Tax returns and transfer pricing submissions of the taxpayers to identify discrepancies and leakages in tax collections.

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