The 57th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST Council) is going to be held in New Delhi on September 12 under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Before this important meeting, which is being held after a long gap of almost a year, there will be a high level meeting of senior tax officials of the Center and the states on September 11. According to the official information released by the Council Secretariat, in this meeting, discussions will be held to further simplify the tax system and review the tax rates on several major items.
Mobile phones expected to become cheaper and review of rate cuts
This meeting can prove to be very important for smartphone buyers and the electronics industry. The probable agenda of the meeting includes a proposal to cut the 18 percent GST rate on mobile phones. If the council approves this recommendation, we may see a direct decline in smartphone prices in the coming days.
Apart from this, the GST Council will also thoroughly review the steps taken for tax rationalization last year. The main objective of this review is to find out whether the direct benefits of rate cuts have reached the common consumers or not.
Registration process will be easy for businessmen
Currently about 1.68 crore businessmen are registered under the GST system in the country. The council is focusing on making the registration process more simple for businesses who forward input tax credit of more than Rs 2.5 lakh per month.
According to tax experts, this new phase of GST reforms will be a big step towards reducing legal complexities and disputes. Reforms are being made at the policy level to make tax administration more transparent and predictable, especially in cases where there is confusion over the interpretation of laws.
Record increase in GST collection
The impact of tax compliance and increase in business activities is also clearly visible on the revenue figures. Gross GST collection recorded a massive growth of 15.4 per cent in the month of July, taking the total collection to an all-time high of ₹2,11,205 crore.
The total revenue for July included ₹39,835 crore from Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), ₹47,881 crore from State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) and over ₹1.23 lakh crore from Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST). Total tax refunds during this period also increased by 13.1 percent to ₹29,968 crore. Now the eyes of the market are fixed on the collection figures of August and the decisions of the council to be taken on September 12.