FM Nirmala Sitharaman Chairs 57th GST Council Meeting In New Delhi

The 57th GST Council meeting is underway at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is chairing the meeting. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Karnataka Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, and Finance Ministers of States and Union Territories are also attending the meeting.

The GST Council meeting will discuss policy reforms to resolve GST disputes and improve the flow of input tax credit, with the aim of reducing the time and cost of compliance. Sources in the Finance Ministry said that the government will propose a five-pronged plan for the next set of reforms to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system. These reforms are aimed at automating and easing many of the current administrative bottlenecks in the GST system and reducing the compliance burden, especially for small businesses.

The five-pronged proposal covers process reforms, structural reforms, ease of living and doing business, exports of services, and e-commerce. Some of the key changes proposed involve automatic invoice matching between buyers and sellers, reducing paperwork around claiming input tax credits (ITC), reducing the number of times small taxpayers have to file returns, and removing multi-state registrations for small businesses.

The last, 56th meeting of the GST Council was held in September last year. During the meeting, the Council approved rate rationalisation with a focus on the common man, labour-intensive industries, farmers and agriculture, health, and key drivers of the economy.