Three Acts Not Treated As Crime, GST Council Recommendations

A major recommendation has been made to decriminalize certain criminal acts. 

New Delhi: No new tax hike. Also, a series of decisions have been taken in the 48th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting for the convenience of common people and businessmen. Finance Ministers of various states were present in the meeting chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman through virtual medium on Saturday. In this meeting, there was no increase in tax on any type of goods or services. Instead, GST on biofuels has been reduced from 18 percent to 5 percent. GST on pulses husk has been reduced from 5 percent to zero. Also, a major recommendation has been made to decriminalize certain criminal acts. A regulation was passed in today's meeting so that common buyers can claim construction services expenses in house purchase quickly. It has also been decided to exclude 'no claim' bonus from GST in case of general insurance. The meeting was supposed to decide to levy GST on online gaming, horse racing and casino, but it has been delayed. Later it will be discussed in the physical presence of the council members.

After the meeting, Union Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said, "A recommendation has been made to decriminalize certain criminal acts." It will be applicable to three types of offences. Obstruction or obstruction of an officer in the performance of duty, willful destruction of material evidence and failure to provide any information are on the list. Moreover, on tax matters, the minimum amount for offenses registered under the GST Act is being doubled. That is, the amount of money which was previously one crore taka, now it is being increased to two crore taka. Also, the same would not apply to offenses like false invoices. Union Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra has claimed that this decision will help in 'ease of doing business' in the context of decriminalization of GST system.

According to sources, the day was mainly about the implementation of all the decisions taken earlier by the fitment committee of the council. For example, GST on sharpeners was proposed to go from 18 per cent to 12 per cent. Its two entries were correct in one place but remained the same in the other. That will be fixed. A number of states, including Bengal, called for lower GST on consumer goods for child education.

Today, Nirmala claimed that even though the income from GST is Rs 1.40 lakh crore, the Center and the states have agreed to retain and increase it. For that, it is being considered to increase the number of 1 crore 40 lakh businesses that are currently covered under GST. Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes, Vivek Jahuri, said that pilot projects are underway in various states. To identify different organizations. Discussions are also going on with the states to identify PAN card number as well.