GST Council likely to meet this month to take up the long-pending issue of setting up GST

The Goods and Services Tax Council will likely meet later this month to take up the long-pending issue of setting up appellate tribunals. According to sources, the date of the meeting is yet to be finalized but it will be towards the middle of the month around February 18. The Council typically meets once after the presentation of the Union Budget.

The top agenda would be setting up the appellate tribunals for GST. The Council is also expected to take up the report on online gaming that was submitted by a Group of Ministers.

“Setting up appellate tribunals for GST is a key priority given the huge number of pending cases. It will be rolled out at the earliest,” said another source.

The GST Council, chaired by union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, had last met on December 17 after a six-month gap.

At the time, it had clarified the rates on several items. Still, it could not take up key reports relating to the setting up of the appellate tribunals, determining the taxation of online gaming, horse racing, and casinos as well as the tax regime for tobacco and gutkha companies.

The meeting was wound up early due to the paucity of time cited by several state finance ministers.

Timely setting up of a GST appellate tribunal has been a key request of the industry, which currently has to take up appeals against orders to the high courts and face long delays in the resolution of such cases.

The report of the GOM, headed by Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, is understood to have suggested setting up a principal bench in New Delhi. Regional benches will also be set up in states.

In larger states, depending on the population, up to five benches may be set up, the report, which was submitted in August last year, is understood to have suggested. Each regional bench would have one technical member, which would be a senior tax official, and one judicial member.

Once the proposal is passed by the GST Council, the Centre may take up amendments to the Central GST Act in the second half of the Budget Session of Parliament. The CGST Act will be amended to provide for all benches of the same kind with a principal bench in New Delhi where the tribunal’s president will sit.

Source from - https://www.financialexpress.com/economy/gst-council-meet-likely-this-month/2969781/