New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made several big announcements after the 53rd meeting of the GST Council. In this, she also announced exemption from GST on the services provided by the Indian Railways. The Finance Minister also informed that facilities like platform tickets, retiring rooms, cloakroom services, battery-operated car services and waiting rooms of the Indian Railways are exempted from GST. In such a situation, now these services will get exemption from GST. He said that apart from this, the Council has given exemption of up to Rs 20,000 per person per month for hostel services outside educational institutions. He said that this exemption is for students or working class and can be availed by staying for at least 90 days.
Monetary limit set to reduce government litigation
At the same time, to reduce government litigation, the GST Council has set a monetary limit for filing appeals by the tax department before various appellate authorities. Nirmala Sitharaman said that it has recommended fixing a monetary limit of Rs 20 lakh for the GST Appellate Tribunal, Rs 1 crore for the High Court and Rs 2 crore for the Supreme Court. If the monetary limit is less than the limit set by the GST Council, the tax authority will usually not appeal. She said that the Council has also recommended that the maximum amount of pre-deposit for filing an appeal before the appellate authority be reduced from Rs 25 crore to Rs 20 crore for CGST and SGST.
Recommendation to reduce GST on carton boxes to 12 percent
Apart from this, in the 53rd meeting of the GST Council on Saturday, it was recommended to reduce GST on all types of carton boxes from 18 percent to 12 percent. A statement said that Himachal Pradesh has been continuously demanding a reduction in GST on apple carton boxes and this reduction will help both the orchardists and the industry save costs. Industry Minister Harshvardhan Chauhan, representing Himachal Pradesh, thanked the council for taking a unanimous decision on the state’s proposal. The council took several decisions to reduce the compliance burden and grievances of small and medium taxpayers. The state delegation included Commissioner State Tax and Excise Yunus and Additional Commissioner (GST) Rakesh Sharma.
Centre’s intention is to impose GST on petrol and diesel
Nirmala Sitharaman said that the intention of the central government has always been to bring petrol and diesel under the ambit of GST and now the states have to come together and decide its rate. She said that former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already made a provision to include petrol and diesel in the GST law. Now the states just have to come together and discuss to decide the rate. Sitharaman said, “The intention of GST was to bring petrol and diesel under GST. Now the states have to decide the rate. The intention of my predecessor (Arun Jaitley) was very clear, we want petrol and diesel to come under GST.” Sitharaman said that while implementing GST, the intention of the central government was to bring petrol and diesel under GST after some time. She said, “Provision has already been made to bring it under GST. Now it is just to decide that the states agree in the GST Council and then decide what rate they will be ready for.” (input language)
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