GST recommendations to create business-friendly environment, ensure fairness: Experts
The 55th GST Council meeting has unveiled a series of pivotal recommendations designed to deliver targeted relief, streamline compliance processes, resolve industry ambiguities and promote trade facilitation, experts said on Sunday.
Among the key proposals is a retrospective amendment to the blocked credit provisions, which now replaces the term "plant or machinery" with "plant and machinery" in line with the Supreme Court's ruling in the Safari Retreats case.
"This distinction clarifies the eligibility for Input Tax Credit (ITC) based on the usage of the two terms. Furthermore, the amendment to the Input Service Distributor (ISD) provisions will incorporate inter-state reverse charge mechanism (RCM) transactions, providing much-needed clarity within the ISD framework," said Krishan Arora, Partner, Grant Thornton Bharat.
Addressing long-standing uncertainties, the Council has clarified that vouchers are neither to be classified as goods nor services. Similarly, goods stored in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) or Free Trade and Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) prior to export clearance or supply to the Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) will not be considered as a supply of goods or services, aligning the treatment of SEZ/FTWZ and customs bonded warehouses.
