GST council meeting Live Updates: GST Council scraps arrest power of tax officers; raises prosecution threshold to Rs 5 crore from 1 crore, Finance Ministry says
GST Meeting LIVE Updates: The GST Council on Thursday approved a series of measures to ease compliance for taxpayers, including scrapping the arrest powers of tax officers and raising the prosecution threshold to Rs 5 crore from Rs 1 crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a press briefing after the 57th GST Council meeting.
The Council also approved a simplified GST registration mechanism for small sellers operating through electronic commerce operators. The mechanism will allow small businesses to sell across states without establishing a place of business in each state, Sitharaman said.
Another decision focused on protecting genuine taxpayers from losing input tax credit (ITC) because of defaults elsewhere in the supply chain.
"There was an agenda on amending Section 162C of the CGST Act, where the ITC passed on to the final genuine taxpayer was blocked or reversed when any one of the suppliers in the value chain allegedly failed to deposit the ITC accrued or passed fake ITC," Sitharaman said.
The Council's decisions come as part of efforts to simplify GST compliance and reduce the burden on smaller businesses while addressing issues faced by taxpayers in claiming legitimate input tax credit.
The measures announced on Thursday cover enforcement, prosecution, e-commerce registration and ITC treatment for genuine taxpayers.
